Has anyone fired the jag weatherman that said "we" wouldn't have to pay for the March weather?

Hopefully the temps warm up and you get rain.

I had an extremely heavy frost last night after an 1" a rain the previous day. The number of freezes has now hit double digits for April in my area.

It stinks, that's for sure. Thanks to the fact that my neck of the woods tends to stay a little warmer and a little more cloudy than many surrounding regions/states, we've squeaked by without too much damage, my coldest morning being about 28.

We had late May in March, followed by late March/early April weather in April. What will May bring???

and we know.. snow is irrelevant.. its only water in a different form ...

the fear is all wrapped up in temps ONLY ...

but for maybe ice .. but your babes shouldnt have trouble with that.. structurally ..

over the years.. i have had many a bizarre snow.. which melts within a day ... and all it did.. was moisten the soil gently ...

ken

^^^ Exactly. The fear that seems to keep surfacing on this board over "late" snows is entirely misplaced. Snow is good!

+oM

Even a FOOT of snow?

They just updated the forecast to give the snow totals. The low temps will be low 30's, and yes, I know that is okay, but can't the heaviness of this snow, and I imagine it's going to be heavy, not the light and fluffy stuff you want to catch on your tongue.....can't that heavy stuff hurt my trees' young branches? In the forecast they said we could have power outages from downed tree limbs, and those are of established, mature trees.

You're right Ilove, that in that sense, there could be cause for concern. Especially since the trees in your area are so advanced in leafing out. What I meant was the notion that somehow, because snow is "cold", it would hurt plants.

But you're right, the sheer weight of a heavy snowfall could cause some breakage. You might want to shake the stuff off if it starts accumulating heavily on your stuff.

+oM

I am very excited that we are finally going to get some real rain!! However, the Crabapples are in full bloom, and I'll be bummed if they don't get good pollination.

They are forecasting pretty harsh conditions for the Buffalo, NY area. I poached this from americanwx.com that somebody posted on the Weather Forecast thread the other day. Very bizarre to have weird storms in the Northeast in October and then April!

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BUFFALO NY
330 PM EDT SAT APR 21 2012

NYZ012-019>021-085-220330-
/O.NEW.KBUF.WS.A.0001.120423T0300Z-120423T2300Z/
WYOMING-CHAUTAUQUA-CATTARAUGUS-ALLEGANY-SOUTHERN ERIE-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...WARSAW...JAMESTOWN...OLEAN...
WELLSVILLE...ORCHARD PARK...SPRINGVILLE
330 PM EDT SAT APR 21 2012

...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY EVENING THROUGH
MONDAY EVENING...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BUFFALO HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM
WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY EVENING THROUGH MONDAY
EVENING.

* LOCATIONS...SOUTHERN ERIE AND WYOMING COUNTIES AND THE WESTERN
SOUTHERN TIER

* TIMING...SUNDAY EVENING THROUGH MONDAY.

* HAZARDS...ACCUMULATING HEAVY WET SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS...10 TO 16 INCHES.

* WINDS...NORTHEAST TO 40 MPH.

* VISIBILITIES BELOW A HALF MILE AT TIMES.

* IMPACTS...WIDESPREAD DOWNED TREES AND POWER LINES CAUSING POWER
OUTAGES. HAZARDOUS DRIVING CONDITIONS DEVELOPING.

* FORECASTER CONFIDENCE...HIGH.

The danger with the upcoming snowstorm is damage from the weight of the snow. If there are trees which have significantly leafed out (enough to carry significantly more weight than bare limbs), there may be significant damage.

The snow itself is probably no big deal for most vegetation.

We will be getting the much needed rain (up to 4 inches), but no snow. But based on the October 2011 snowstorm, the trees that seemed to suffer a lot were the northern, Saucer Magnolias, ironically, without damage to the evergreen, Southern grandiflora. Some trees split in half or lost major branches and outages were bad.

Did I say a foot of snow? I was mistaken...it's now looking to be 16 inches of heavy snow. :We're going to go out when dh gets home from work this afternoon, and put the blankets up, stretching them tightly. It's the only thing we can do at this point.

I will flip out, if this entire month of April I've successfully protected this trees from the frosts and freezes, to only have some freak snow storm come and break all the branches off of them.

I don't think I would be particularly worried about small trees and shrubs from this. The snow can only pile up so far on a small surface, and the wind will help keep it off. A larger surface can collect a higher, larger pile of snow. Which is why having leaves is such a problem. They are flat surfaces that can collect more snow than just branches. Putting blankets on is just making more flat surface to collect snow - probably enough to crush anything underneath.

We've been through a couple of these bad out of season snowstorms over the years. The trees that have issues are large ones, with lots of surface area, that are already weakened somehow. Small trees and shrubs only have problems if a larger tree crashes down on them.

Yes, unless the blanket is well supported underneath, putting a blanket on anything is a BAD idea.

We put the blankets over tomato cages the cover each tree completely. The blankets will have full support of the cages. We will be stretching the blankets to make sure that if any snow accumulates, which it shouldn't since these blankets are not laying flat, but shaped like tee pees over cages, that the snow will not in its weight, pull down on the blankets.

Yeah I dunno about the blankets. Tomato cages are flimsy at times.

I've been using the blankets all April against up to 50mph winds, frost and freeze with no problems. The cages aren't buried into the ground; they are supported by 2X4's on the ground sliding through them and 40lb bags of rock on each side of the cages laying on top of the 4X4's. The cages aren't flimsy at all due to our set up.

We're going out in about 2 hours to hang the blankets. The cages, 2X4's, rock etc are already in place. We've left them there all month because there's no point taking them down until we are safely out of frost danger in mid May.

I said 4X4's in my last post accidentally. They are 2x4's, to be exact they are 2x4x10's.

I think you are underestimating the ability of heavy wet snow to stick to things. I've seen copious amounts stick to vertical sides of telephone poles with a 10-15 mph wind.

If mine are small enough to cover I just use the ghetto method- walk around with a long pole and bang the snow off as it accumulates, LOL.
With a couple of hot toddies and a friend it can make for a fun night :)

I have to do something....I can't sit idly by and not try. If it's a mistake then I am willing to accept the consequences. I really do feel this will help more than it hurts.

I feel for your anxiety but past a certain point you can't fight nature- it will always win.

This has been a very strange spring to be sure- but plants have been through it before and will go through it again. All we can do is buy the right plant for our micro-climate, site it in the best possible spot as regards exposure, keep it healthy enough to withstand the occasional assault, and get out of the way.

All my trees are covered and the storm will be here in an hour or so. :(