I am preparing to bank my citrus plants starting tomorrow in anticipation of the coldest air this year and maybe even the coldest since December 1989! I will bank first and then cover what I can tomorrow afternoon. The latest news is an upper level ridge is going to build and drag down some very very cold air from siberia.

I wish you the best of luck. My yard is devasted from the freezes we have had.

Umm, cold where? It would be nice if you posted your location with your zone. Florida? It's not particularly cold in the SE Texas 10 day prediction.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/health/allergies/tenday/77707

Florida has been hit bad. Not so here in Beaumont.

The forecast models do not all agree with how cold it will get or the durations. The temperatures in northern Canada are not forecast to be nearly as cold as December 1989 or 1983. The temperature at the 500MB level in north Canada is 15 to 20C warmer than December 1989. There is concern however that the trough over Texas and the north Gulf coast could remain in place for an extended time. Other models show the trough moving east fast with the cold air. Florida is not expected to be as impacted as Texas by this arctic air mass.

For more information go the NOAA weather website and read the forecast discussion for Dallas,Texas. Go to Accuweather and read Bastardi's forecast for mid January.


I remember back in December 1989 the temperatures here were not predicted to fall much below 20F until very very late when the forecast was changed! They botched that forecast and people were not prepared and many pipes burst! My uncle had frozen pipes and thousands of dollars in water damage. The December 1989 freeze was at first forecast to be not nearly as severe. It is very hard to forecast arctic cold spells until late. The potential is there though for this to be a very extreme freeze event so just be prepared!

It looks like the extreme cold will come the week after next week according to Accuweather Bastardi! Many areas could challenge record low temperature maybe even all time lows for January.

I'm still not seeing it yet!

http://www.accuweather.com/us/tx/beaumont/77707/forecast-month.asp

Google arctic blast for Texas.
Here's an article
http://www.brownwoodnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4123:colder-weather-expected-next-week&catid=40:outdoors&Itemid=63

The article says "west central Texas". We are at southeast... Hopefully, we will not see that blast.

It looks like a low of 27 F tonight, 24 to 26F tomorrow night, and 27F Friday morning. The water temperatures are below normal here and concerned about another fish kill. Last January there were a lot of dead fish floating on the water near here.


After the freezes in the 1980s the fishing was devastated and did not recover until the mid to late 1990s. The 1983 freeze killed a huge percentage of red fish and weak fish and then just 6 years later an even more severe freeze in 1989 further reduced the fish population which was still recovering from the the 1983 freeze. It is not just citrus impacted by severe freezes.

We were forecasted to get down to 20 degrees last night, which had me a little worried since i did not have too much time to prepare. Luckily we only actually reached 26 for a low and have sunny 50 degree weather today for recovery day.

Also in Houston, Used C-9 Christmas tree lights on a 12 foot Satsuma last night - worked very good. I placed a bowl of water right under the tree and at 6a.m. this morning the water was still liquid, but bird bath 10 ft away was frozen solid. Used a set of 25 C7 lights on a 5 ft Satsuma - bowl of water also underneath the tree. Water was liquid at 6 a.m.

Did not use any other cover!! The lights work, at least for 28 degrees.

The temperature dropped to 32 F at 2 AM last night and continued to drop to 27.2F for a low. Tonight the low is likely 25 or 26F.


I bought some out door power blankets for freeze protection. One power blanket(4X5 feet) heat output is equal to at least 250 C9 lights or about 10 cords of lights. The standard blanket temperature is about 50F greater than air temperature and 15F greater than C9 lights. The extra hot is 80F greater than air temperature. At 40F air temperature the C9 lights were about 75F the standard blanket 92F

MrTexas, we stopped using acuweather few years ago for the same reason. Weather channel seems to have better guesses.