Hi Scott,

I was surprised we dropped so low too. Taunton, MA dropped to -1F that night. I had a double temperature probe setup that night with the main unit on top of the snow which recorded -2.9F and the remote unit 5 feet above the snow which recorded +0.9F. I think my solid, 6 foot tall fence 'captured' the cold air and it pools in my back yard until it get over the fence. Does this make sense? I need to open up my fence so the cold air can drain away.

Here's the +0.9F at 5 feet above the snow line:


Here's the temperature probe setup:


Here's NOAA's temperature data for their stations:

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/dailystns.shtml

Hi Ivica,

thanks for the great data on which citrus's survived you cold spell. I'll keep everyone posted to see what type of damage occurred on my Citrumelo. I'm hoping the temperature inside the protection was at least a few degrees warmer???

As of this morning the Citrumelo looks OK.

End of February Update:

Miscellaneous Notes:

Outside Weather:
-Overall Feb. had fewer temperature extremes than January.
-Between Feb. 1 and Feb. 6 there were 116 consecutive hours below freezing
-We had one large snowfall of 25-27 inches (63-68 cm) in less than 24 hours on Feb. 9. This snow is now almost completely melted.
-The coldest temperature was 11F (-11.7C) on Feb. 10 at the Personal Weather Station near my house. (I observed a low of 15.4F at my house).

Inside temperatures:
-The lowest temperature inside the enclosure was 30.7F (-0.7C) on Feb. 4.
-The largest temperature differential between the inside and outside temps. was 23.2F (12.9C) on Feb. 10.
-The large amount of snow cover helped insulate against the cold temps on Feb. 9 and 10.
-The lowest soil temperature inside (at 4-6 inches depth) was 37.4F (3C)
-The temperature inside the enclosure was below freezing for a total of 11 hours in the entire month.

Other Observations and Comments:
My Satsuma still appears to be doing well. There are currently no noticeable changes between now and the end of Jan.
Hopefully the interior air and soil temps will warm up significantly in March, so the tree will begin breaking dormancy.
I doubt there will be any weather that is cold enough to drop the interior temp. below freezing the rest of this winter.



Temp. Graphs for Dec. 2012 to Feb. 2013:

Key:
Top row:
Orange--Daily Low Soil Temp
Green--Daily Low Inside Temp
Blue--Daily Low Outside Temp

Bottom row:
Grey--Inside Daily Average Temp
Orange--Outside Daily Average Temp



Note: for Dec. the green line is the soil temp. not outside temp.

Scott, just curious, as the enclosure starts to warm up do you have plans to slowly remove protection? Some basic venting strategy to control temperature and humidity?

Greg,
I'm not too worried about over-heating. The large volume of water should keep the interior from heating up too rapidly (just as it has kept the interior temps from cooling down too much in the coldest part of winter). As the sun angle gets higher though, more of the upper part of the tree will receive direct sunlight and may get warmer than I'd like, especially if the soil temps are still below 50F or so. If this starts to become a problem, I can simply prop open the roof on days that are forecast to be warm and sunny.

...not warm and sunny in this pic, but it was above freezing

And, it was 84 degrees here, today. How crazy is that? Downside? My little Wase Satsuma got hit extremely hard, and looks like it's going to die. I'm very upset. I cannot believe just 3 days of warm, dry weather would do that. Watered everything, will clip off all fruit, and pray. Damn.

Well - there was a news story that at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) there were 4 times that there was no snow recorded during the January / February time period between 1937 and 2000. Since 2000, this anomaly has happened 4 times - including this year. The only snow that fell in the region was in mid December when we had several inches of slush.

This may bode well for my citrus growing, but it certainly indicates that we are in a period of climate change.

Greg

Snowfall totals vary quite a bit year-to-year in Boston. So far this winter we are up to around 43 inches (our average is around 42 in). Last winter there was only around 10 inches all winter, but 3 years ago we had something like 85 inches.
Old Man Winter needed to check his GPS that winter... I think he thought we were Buffalo NY.

Scott, this picture of stone fence without mortar looks like you live somewhere in Dalmatia on the adriatic coast. People used to build such stone fences before as pasture fence or simply walls. it is nice surprise for me to see it in your environment.


http://www.google.hr/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=mJrK1bl9a6uBmM&tbnid=9bvhQOOnGInu1M:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fmunchmellow%2F6211549587%2F&ei=iyAzUf_rGovJswb_qoDoAw&bvm=bv.43148975,d.Yms&psig=AFQjCNH8vzWm8Vf5ejv1tbY5-Kx_I8ot4w&ust=1362391551299400

Adriano,
Yes, the simple stone walls are quite common in New England. The one in my back yard is actually a retaining wall/terrace, holding back the side of the hill, which is somewhat less common.

Most of the countryside was cleared for farming over 200 years ago and since the soil was quite poor, they used the many stones they found to construct the walls. In the decades since, most of these fields were abandoned and have returned to forest land.

Here's a good description, I learned something new reading it too!
http://www.field-notebook.com/?p=119

I remember the walls well, they came as far as eastern NY state.

most interesting. this walls were also popular in Ireland. Maybe irish settlers have built these stones in America.

Interesting history and geography lesson! Thanks guys and gals!