Grapefruit are more frost sensitive than Oranges. Lemons are one off the most cool tolerant, of the common citrus.
That is too bad. I’m guessing they’ll just have to replant everything if they get zapped.
Brownsville, TX dropped to 28F…showing 26F tonite. I think that is about as far south as you can get in Texas.
I believe Houston is 9a, but still it’s definitely outside the normal range.
But the zone system is based on the 30-year average of annual minimums, not the all-time minimum temperatures. And west coast growing zones have a more stable overall temperature range than east of the Rockies. We can thank the Pacific for that.
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I don’t grow citrus but am bummed that this will probably mean no loquat fruit this year. 18 degrees a few years ago wiped out most of my loquat fruit and the low where I am was 13 degrees last night and again tonight.
A lot of it has to do with the jet stream,as cold air is pulled down from the Arctic.Like swincher wrote,the Pacific Ocean is a buffer to the coastal states.
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Northeast Texas here, zone 8a with a low temperature of 10F last night. So far still in zone parameters. We have around 6-8 inches of snow on the ground which will help for the rest of the week. Midday temp is 12 degrees with a real feel of -3F. Tonight’s low is supposed to be 3F and that has been raised from a predicted -3F. We don’t do this well. We have no water from our water company and we are getting 10 minutes of electricity every 10-45 minutes due to power grid management. We do not have snow plows and very little access to sanding/salting equipment. Our first future time of above freezing temperatures is Saturday. Because we don’t have this happen very often we don’t have amenities to stay mobile. I don’t have citrus and don’t zone push a lot but my in-ground fig trees are probably toast and I’m kinda worried about my Asian persimmons as most of them are very young.
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There are no significant mountain ranges between the arctic and Texas. When the cold breaks out it often rushes straight south right thru Texas. For arctic cold to get to CA it has to cross the Rockies or come down over the ocean. If over the ocean it is warmed by all that water. And the real cold is shallow so doesn’t easily cross high mountains. If you compare many places just east of the Rockies to areas west of the first high mountains it’s much more protected west of the mountains. For instance Grand Junction CO is much more protected from the real cold than Denver just straight east 150 miles. Last night it was -11F in Denver and 16F in Grand Junction. I’m 700 miles south of both and 4F last night. No mountains protecting west Texas.
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Crazy. Yeah, I get the basic dynamics but man, this cold has gone well into Mexico. It’s really quite breath taking.
Check this web cab in Galveston. Yes Galveston. Literally right on the Gulf Of Mexico I.e. warm waters. It’s stunning to see the cold not moderating that far south.
We’re just north of Dallas. 5F overnight. Our greenhouse (Shelter Logic 20 ft with 2 layers of poly sheeting) got down to 31F with just 1 electric heater. Thank God we have not had an outage yet. Worried about tonight. Long term plan is to build an attached catio/greenhouse. Any recommendations for builder/contractors?
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Yeah the beaches along Galveston have snow on them this morning. There are some webcams on KHOU.
California has 3 things working for it. The Pacific moderates everything. The Sierra NEvada and the Rockies also block any cold air to the east making it west. Also when you do get any east wind you get warming (falling air warms as it drops down those mountains)…santa ana winds.
I guess i dropped to -21F this morning. Up to -4F.
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There might be a little of a silver lining to that cold going out over the Gulf of Mexico. THE GOM is the source of warmth that fuels the tornadoes in the spring (warm gulf air/cold Canadian air). I’ve seen some research on this in the past…something to watch this spring if it is a dud in terms of severe weather.
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Yeah, this airmass must be pushing strong from the north as the Gulf of Mexico is not even moderating things. Looks like Houston at almost 1pm local time is STILL only 23°. Wow!
Edit; Shockingly the WU station I was monitoring in Houston has actually dropped to 21° as we get into the warmest part of the day.
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Unreal!
Nobody showed the map to Mother Nature
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How cold did it get for you in Texas, City by city
Athens - Northeast. . -2 officially. My hill is always a bit colder but I didn’t care to go check it out!
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You can zoom in on any area and tap the station to see the “minimum temperature since midnight,” looks like 19°F in Corpus Christi, 26° in Brownsville, 12° in Houston, 8° in Austin… to name a few:
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