So, how cold did it get where you are?

13 years ago

So far here, I've been lucky. Last night was our coldest predicted night of this current arctic blast. It was -1 F at 8:00 this morning at Oakland Pontiac Airport near my house. It was +1 F at Detroit Metropolitan airport. Certainly not damaging temperatures for anything traditionally grown in my region.

However, the actual air temperature at dawn in Grayling, Michigan in the northern part of the Lower Peninsula was -36 F. Yikes, that's COLD!

What did it do in your neck of the woods?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (32)

camp10
13 years ago
Minus 11 at my house this morning. I live a bit south of Madison, WI. It was minus 18 about 10 miles from here.
brookw_gw
13 years ago
Friday morning around here saw it anywhere from -2 to -5. I'm hoping my blackberries are ok, and I'm a little concerned about my Misty blueberries.

Brook
Related Discussions
How cold did you get last night(1/16/12)?
Q
Comments (12)
We had colder weather here today and yesterday than we did on Monday. Monday morning's low was 49, but yesterday and today it got down to 45 degrees, and in certain spots in my yard it is 3 or 4 degrees colder, and so I do not put anything sensitive there. I keep orchids outside all winter, and they are doing okay, but they are in the warmest part of the back yard and are semi-protected. I have basil and tomato plants in pots next to the house, and they are doing well. I seem to get more tomatoes in the winter than I do in the summer. None of my Kalanchoes have ever gotten damaged, and I have some of the in the coldest parts of the yard. The heliconias never get damaged either.
...See More
How did you get to be so beautiful?
Q
Comments (17)
"How do your beautiful gardens acheive that full, waves and waves of color look?" Mostly by guess and by gosh....lots of oooppss....and oh well it doesn't look so bad there after all. Plants don't always listen to the labels that are attached to them when you buy them.....so just be prepared to be adaptable. Don't be afraid to move a plant if you have to. Patience will be your best reward. I start most things from seed......and plunk the baby plants in and wait a year or two to see how it looks in that location. Sometimes I don't like the plant at all, it makes its way to the compost. Other times there is just a better place to put it. If it grows differently than I expect it...it most likely will have to be moved. Even when I buy plants I buy plants in small pots....part of the enjoyment of gardening is watching everything grow. Just watch that you don't put anything invasive into your garden. "do you plant little areas with intermixed, successively blooming plants of one color, or do you keep complimentary plants as neighbors without deliberately mixing them?" I don't think about this at all. LOL I mix them all up and hope for the best. Hopefully I have shorter plants in front of the taller plants....if not I move them. "Do you use a lot of annuals to keep color going, or do you find that non-blooming patches of green help to highlight nearby dramatic blooms?" I start lots of annuals indoors staring in Feb. But for the most part, they are planted in beds by themselves. If I have extras after all the planters and annual beds are done, then I will stick the rest in where ever there is room. I don't rely on them for colour in the perennial beds. What role does height and bloom time play for you when deciding where something will go? Well obviously I try to keep shorter plants in front of the tall ones. If I have one large area that doesn't have any blooms at a certain time of year...I divide or move something from another area.......but this doesn't happen very often because of the large variety of plants that are in the garden. Also because my gardening season is so short, I have to make sure the plants in my garden have time to bloom. Basically my garden is an anything that will grow well in zone 2 and not be invasive, cottage garden. LOL! I don't think that everything has to be well planned and percise. Take chances, laugh at clashing colours and mistakes. Have fun. Remember all most people see is splashes of colour and green, they really don't see your mistakes!!!!! Sierra
...See More
The obligatory 'How cold did it get?' thread.
Q
Comments (24)
Just checked the thermometers and they say 29 here. Too much wind for any frost but the real damage will make itself known in the days to come! I've been taking cuttings over the last month and they are tucked into the greenhouse that is holding at 52 so they are warm and safe from the wind. Hopefully if I do lose anything I will have a replacement for it. Most everything that died back last year came back from the roots but I do like hedging my bets! If nothing else, I will have lots of goodies for a swap in the spring! Stay Warm! nova
...See More
How cold does it get where you are?
Q
Comments (2)
Lisa, Thanks for that nice summation of gardening in Reno. To me, 14 degrees is really cold. I haven't felt that in about 10 years when all of CA got an arctic blast. I was at my parents who then lived in the SF Bay Area, and it hit 14 deg. with a wind chill was supposedly 7 deg. F. The lemons and calamondin trees were severly frost bitten, despite my tenting efforts. The apple, pear, and persimmon didn't mind and put out great fruit, and there were far fewer pests that following spring! I can't even imagine -20 deg. F. My parents have yet to experience a winter in North Vegas at their new house. They're going to have me plant an apple and persimmon tree in a few weeks. They also want some perennials. So, I appreciate the tips. I am reminded regularly about the importance of a good chill in growing great stone fruit and apples. One of the local farmers markets vendors in Irvine Farmers Market (Smith Family) have their orchards near Reno. IMO, they have the sweetest Fuji and Pink Lady apples and white nectarines (Arctic Snow variety) the the whole market. They believe that their organic methods plus their big chill are the reasons it's a tad sweeter than everyone else. It sounds like you've got Zone 7 gardening to a science. Your techniques all make sense. It sounds like you're gardening every day inside in winter. I was wondering though about the sweet peas that you have to plant in March to have them in the fall? Is that because it's too hot? We don't deal with extremes like you do where I am (in Southern CAL). For late fall sweet peas, we just plant in early September. We could get 100 deg. temps once in awhile, and we can get frost once every three years. But really, we can plant seeds from Labor Day through St. Patty's Day and be guaranteed really sweet smelling pea flowers about 2-3 months later. Some plant them all year. Again, thanks for that info. I'll make sure to wear a down jacket when I'm in that part of Nevada in winter. My brothers go up there regularly. They're expert level snowboarders and skiiers even in their late 40s, and don't even own a down jacket! Meanwhile, I just sit in the hotel room looking at gardening catalogs sipping a hot toddy.
...See More
hillbilly_hydro
13 years ago
you all make me feel warm as it only got down to 20 degrees here:)
wordwiz
13 years ago
Cincy's official low (across the river, at the No. KY Airport - out in the country almost) was minus eight. I had minus 4 in my backyard and, to my surprise, minus 5 inside my GH (no door). It was the coldest temp in eight years.

Mike
georgeb_noobgarden
13 years ago
28 degrees It was way way too cold
tmacmillan
13 years ago
It was -34*C in my backyard this morning - Sault Ste Marie, ON.
ottawan_z5a
13 years ago
The highest today was -21C at 3:00pm and now forcast to go down to -30C during the morning hours of tomorrow, Monday (Jan 24). That is what we pay for a clear sunny day with no cloud.
sautesmom Sacramento
13 years ago
It's 61 here this afternoon.
:)
Carla in Sac
thisisme
13 years ago
We had some night time lows in the low 20's this year. For us it was very cold. Its warming up now though with daytime highs in the low 70's and night time lows in the high 40's-mid 50's. Some of my trees that went dormant a few weeks ago are starting to come out of dormancy.
larry_gene
13 years ago
Seldom been out of the +40's here lately. 50 is warm and anything less than 40 is cold.

The last two years we have had our coldest temperatures in the autumn, not the winter. Short spells of teens in November/early December. In winter, you can hardly buy a frost around here right in the city.

All-time record for Portland, Oregon is -3 in 1950, during the only week when temperatures ever approached zero here.
MisterTristern
13 years ago
Well, around 20's in eastern NC. Gardenias and camelias had to go under covers! brrrr!
theaceofspades
13 years ago
Lows are about 47 here in San Francisco, zero degrees tonite in NY. Zero is rare in NY, maybe once a year and not last year. 30 to 80 is the range in San Francisco, nice climate but it comes with a killer smog sometimes I'm told. I've seen Apricots are starting to bloom in some areas and in NY it will be about nine weeks more.
herbalbetty
13 years ago
It is -22.4 here in Huntersland, NY.
ravenh2001
13 years ago
It was -20 here in downeast maine. +45 in my computer room. We shut several unused rooms off when it gets real cold to save oil.
Scott F Smith
13 years ago
It got down to 7F Sat nite which is the coldest this year so far. The usual lowest low I get is about 2F so a ways to go for that still. Sounds like the northeast will be hit tonight.

Scott
snowgardener
13 years ago
This morning it was -25 F here. I'm not worried about any plants, however, because we have a nice thick snow blanket right now.
franktank232
13 years ago
-19.7F Friday morning and -19.1F on Sunday morning.. Mild week coming up ... Temp this afternoon was 27.5F, so almost a 50F rise in less then 48hrs.

Not bad for here... I usually end up in the low -20Fs every year it seems, and usually one or two days that don't rise above 0F.

I don't mind the clear/cold/calm days. I love the winter sunshine.

Lots of snow here ...40 inches so far this season.
chills71
13 years ago
4 degrees in the banana belt of Michigan.

Beats last year's coldest. (by 2 degrees)

My garage hasn't dropped below 20 (unattached, unheated) as far as I'm aware.

~Chills
windfall_rob
13 years ago
-29F this (mon)morning..in northern VT mountains...it's the coldest we have had in a couple years....we used to see it a bit more regularly. Lots of snow will help, and it has been a pretty short cold snap...but I must say it has me second guessing some of the more tender stuff on order for the coming spring.
alan haigh
13 years ago
Right around -14 F. at my house so I drove to Westport (on the Long Island sound) to prune some apple trees at Martha Stewart's old house (for those of you who have watched her show) and it was quite comfortable there. Probably didn't even get to 0.
obrionusa
13 years ago
Indianapolis news said it was 21 above this morning.
glenn_10 zone 4b/5a NewBrunswick,Can.
13 years ago
-11F (-24C) here this morning, coldest it's been here all winter. Normally our coldest days at this time of year are around -18F (-28C).This is the first time it has gone below -4F(-20C)this winter.So it's er um "warm" this winter.
olpea
13 years ago
Interesting reading all the different temps. Of course I could get the same information off the weather channel, but it's a little more meaningful to hear it from individual fruit growers.

The cold snap seems to have missed the lower Midwest this time. I don't believe it even got down in the single digits this morning. I think the low here this winter has been about minus 2F which is pretty normal for the last decade.
PRO
Granite City Services
13 years ago
central MN

-25.4F at the house. lower fields would have been about 5 degrees colder.
ottawan_z5a
13 years ago
Yesterday morning (Monday Jan 24) was the lowest so far this year outside at -30C ( -22F), feeling -37C with wind-chill in Ottawa, Ontario. We see this regularly this time of the year (until late February) for short periods.

Are the plants affected by wind-chill effect other than desiccation?
wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
13 years ago
0F Friday morning...the coldest yet this winter.
georgeb_noobgarden
13 years ago
50 degrees (Last night) tonight is going to get like 30-40ish!
fabaceae_native
13 years ago
We had -4F here near Santa Fe, NM back in December. We don't usually get the cold snaps the same time as either coasts, so the lowest we've been recently is around 12.

As few would realize, being at the same latitude as the Carolinas, we average two nights below zero each winter, and a warm winter might mean one or two nights in the single digits. But then again, we usually clear freezing by midday, since our daytime/nighttime temperatures can span 30 or 40 degrees.

Even though our low temps may be similar to places much farther north, winter here is vastly more pleasant, especially with a passive solar house! More often than not we don't even need supplemental heat!

At least you can all take comfort from the fact that these temps are coming during the coldest time of the year, so it's not likely to get any colder, and the plants are quite dormant!
kokos
13 years ago
Lowest temp this year in Toronto(last weekend) was:
-22 Celcius which is -7.6 Farenheit!
franktank232
13 years ago
Another shot of cold air is coming next week. Looks like even far south areas of Texas could get in on the cold action.

Stupid models are showing -20Fs again here... Long winter around these parts.
dennis1983
13 years ago
Denninmi Hi

I think i can answer this question too, altought i think you asked U.S.A. temperature. Wunderground show mine place 24.1.2011. low temperature of -8 celsius, 23.1.2011. show low temperature of -7 celsius, 22.1.2011. show low temperature of -7 celsius, 28.1.2011. show low of -4 celsius and 31.1.2011. show low of -10 celsius.
myk1
13 years ago
I've heard as low as -9 but my sending unit that's up against the house says 0.

So, how cold did it get where you are?

Comments (32)

camp10

brookw_gw

Related Discussions

hillbilly_hydro

wordwiz

georgeb_noobgarden

tmacmillan

ottawan_z5a

sautesmom Sacramento

thisisme

larry_gene

MisterTristern

theaceofspades

herbalbetty

ravenh2001

Scott F Smith

snowgardener

franktank232

chills71

windfall_rob

alan haigh

obrionusa

glenn_10 zone 4b/5a NewBrunswick,Can.

olpea

Granite City Services

ottawan_z5a

wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana

georgeb_noobgarden

fabaceae_native

kokos

franktank232

dennis1983

myk1

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US