You know the arctic air has decided to dip down around you when you kick a hunk of ice and it makes that almost metalic clinking sound when it hits another hunk of ice. But I guess I'm not alone up here in Maine: http://news.yahoo.com/chilling-arctic-air-invasion-captured-animation-225601925.html
Spring will come, spring will come...

in 2 months.

The first two weeks of February look cold although it appears that the coldest air will remain well north of the southeast. It will likely cool down though, but not too extreme. After about February 10 the pattern should change to warmer weather and more Pacific air.

The sun is over latitude 18.9 south today, over 17 south February 1, and 10 south February 22. The days are going to get much longer over the next 5 months and at accelerating pace. Before you know it spring will be here! We are past the dead of the solar winter NOV 21 through JAN 20 when the sun was between 20 latitude south and 23.5 latitude south. Now the days get longer and the sun gets brighter. The average temperatures tend to lag the sun angle change though by about 25 days.


Early this month there was hype that we might see a repeat of the January 1985 severe freeze event based on similar setup over the arctic and SSW. This fortunately did not happen and will not likely happen IMO at least this winter. The coldest air stayed way north this time. Spring will be here soon enough.

We've barely had and real Winter temperatures where I live, which is South of Wilmington, NC, on a barrier island. It's only gotten below 32 degrees four time and those have all been in the past 3 weeks.
Unless we get colder temps for several weeks in a row, I doubt I'll get much of a crop from my nectarine.
At least the citrus I planted last year (Satsuma, grapefruit and kumquat) are able to get a good root system going without having to deal with too much cold.
Barb