There is an old weather saying, "A man with two thermometers does not know the temperature."

It depends on the mounting location of the mercury thermometer. If it is near a wall or driveway or any structure it can off by several degrees.

I am not saying your electronic is wrong or right , I am saying lots of factors are involved here.

Randy

You are right the location of the thermometer is important and I did have this thermometer in a different location compared to past temperature measurements. Still it should not be that big a difference. I am going to buy another thermometer and compare next time. Maybe next winter because there may not be many more cold spells until December.

I put this thermometer in my freezer and it measured a min of -10F which is low. I doubt my old freezer is this cold!

Another massive cold wave coming late next week! Temperatures late next week could be 20 F below normal! Lows in the 30s possible for Gulf coast like Mobile,AL and north Florida and hopefully above freezing! I doubt a freeze will happen there but there will some cool nights for sure.
The northern tier such as the Great Lakes region and Northeast could be dealing with blizzards again!

I don't know where you see that. My 10 looks great, as does Mobile, AL http://www.weather.com/outlook/recreation/outdoors/tenday/USAL0371

Todd, I saw this earlier on in the week - temps in my area were slated to be in the low 50's as a high, and that is COLD for us in March. Then, yesterday, everything was revised up by about 10-12 degrees. Go figure.

I'm watching the new long range models roll in this morning and it's still looking like a true arctic outbreak as far south as northern Alabama, northern Georgia into South Carolina coming up March 25-28. There's still a lot of variability from one model run to the next, but the trend is definitely for much-below normal temperatures next weekend.

Most trees and plants here in Southeast NC are already leafing out and blooming. With temperatures forecast generally in the 70s and 80s for the next five days I'm sure those few straggling plants will be in full bloom just in time for the cold. Ugh.

I'm thinking back to April 2007 when record-breaking cold on four consective nights destroyed the commercial blueberry crops in this corner of the state and heavily damaged peaches, apples, and field crops in other parts of the Carolinas. (A thorough but rather boring report on that freeze is available here: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/special-reports/2007-apr-cold-event.html ) Let's all hope the upcoming cold isn't as bad as it's looking this far out!

This coming cold sucks because it no sooner warms up in New England and then wham another massive cold air out break. It should remain mild in Texas and the coldest air will be east of the Mississippi river especially the northeast. I hope and do not think this will be as severe as the April 2007 cold wave.

I sure hope it does not come down this far. My apple trees will be in full bloom. They can go down to 29F.

How low can citrus blooms go?

Randy

Whew - looks like you're right TRI. The long-range models show about the same pattern they've been showing for next weekend, but with much less cold air coming south. The extreme cold (teens and single digits) stays up in the Great Lakes and New England with only a little chill dropping south to the Carolinas. The Gulf Coast and Northern Florida might just see one night in the upper 40s.

Back to our regularly scheduled program...watching the remainder of my citrus come out of dormancy. Spring is especially welcome this year!