Seriously?

Just checked WU - our forecast for Saturday is high of 27, low of 20. 80% chance of precipitation. The Snow Hope meter in Tidewater VA is high.

Outside temp now 57, weather station says HH is 88! Last night, outside was 45, station said HH was 31. Maybe I have defective thermometer. I'd better check it out NOW.

Yikes! You are a brave soul Token.... I would be fighting the urge to coddle the sprouts (I know we are not supposed to)

Chilly temps here, single digits this weekend....not a sprout in sight. ;)

Forecast is for 15 here, hopefully will miss the ice and snow.

EG

It was 7 when I went out to clear the front walk (not the whole walk), high today 10. Not supposed to get up to 20 until Sunday, then 20's and 30's, probably good for WS.

I'd be scared but I haven't been at it as long as you have. What I did notice 2 winters back about Mar or so was that some intrepid little growers poked their little heads thru the soil to test things out. They seemed to cling close to the soil for some time before it warmed up enough to put out more growth. So they do have their ways of coping. Others seem to have sense enough to stay under the soil longer seem to sense something. One theory is longer days (for seeds we don't cover?), but temps have to be a factor.

But if the whole container freezes solid, how do baby seedlings survive? I suppose if it's brief the heat trapped in the little greenhouse (which is why we do it) keeps the temp up, but several days running, I think mine would be goners.

If anyone knows differently, I'd like to know.

Ours is predicting lows of 18, with precipitation in the form of a wintry mix.

I'm so ready for spring.

Yep, we're expecting a big snow here too (WNC) tomorrow night, 8 to 10 inches they say. And I just noticed this morning I have tiny little aster sprouts, but that's it so far.

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It's so weird, pay more attention to stuff now. It's 10F and feels like it, I dress for the cold in layers and heavy boots. But clearing the walk when I got up around 10 am and my son came and did the whole corner and neighbor's with the snowblower, where the sun hits, it doesn't melt but what's left, most seems to evaporate. Wonder why.

We don't have to clear the walks if it's only an inch or two, but it can more easily turn to ice if you don't and takes a lot longer to melt.

This may sound odd, but if it just warms up, I'll be happy, yes, looking forward to flowers but I've made so much more work for myself if all or most of my containers grow.

Tom, will the hoophouse be able to withstand snow/ice storm? Do you have a heater in there? Hate to see all your hard work get damaged.

Token, if I were mean and vindictive I'd point out that that's worse than predictions for here in Ohio. But since I'm so kind I won't mention that we're going to be warmer and no ice or snow here.

Karen

It's going into the single digits tonight here too. But I have no sprouts to worry about anyway.lol
Ground hog day is coming in 5 days!!!
:)Laura

Wow, cold for your area.

I decided not to look in my containers. then I have no sprouts to worry about! Plus since I sowed them I have had ice, snow or rain on them. There is no way they have dried out one bit!

You are right they can handle it. Also, if they don't make it then they were not strong enough anyway and you don't need weak plants.

Karen

Lots of luck with the babies. No ice or snow for us, but baby its getting cold outside!

:o Oh no, I just saw this morning that my chinese aster and bachelor's button is having roots. Should I worry with the snow coming? I would feel better if the one sending out roots are perennials... :/

Minus 1 here tonight they say, next 2 days low of 11 degrees. No ice or snow predicted, think it is blown to another state, 30MPH winds, yeiks it's cold!
Have the woodburner on high, 78 degrees downstairs, have the back water dripping so it doesn't freeze and the heat tape on the well pipes.

I am so longing for warmer weather without having to mow the grass or battle weed season, lol.

The hoophouse will be fine. It's strong enough to withstand 30+mph windgusts that we had the other day. I'm not at all worried about it.

I've got lots of firewood split and will move the rest into the basement today before the rain starts. Yes, this is cold for our area. We usually touch the single digits once or twice in February. But in between the cold snaps, we have lots of mild weather in the 40s, 50s, and lately, the 60s. Yesterday is was 63 degrees at 6pm. This morning, it's 37.

If it does snow, the plants will handle the colder temperatures better. The snow will insulate them and keep them from freezing crispy. Even ice will help, but I'd prefer snow.

Token - My little coldframes are ready for anything, too! I'm ready....

EG

token,

If you can cover your sprouts, I'd do it. Really hardy sprouts may survive, but why push it. In my zone, I can't be a ws purist and the reason is we regularly get spring lows below 25F. It's better to say, "They would have survived but I covered them anyway" than to say "I lost them all"

If you don't cover and get the lows, let us know what survives. It will help us northern gardeners know what we can get away with.

Last year, sprouts survived single digits for several nights in a row. With a cover of snow or ice, they should be just fine. Of all my sprouted containers, I have others that still haven't sprouted since they were put out later. I'll take an inventory on Monday when it's supposed to warm up to the 40s.

Coming up on noon and it's 13 degrees here in north-central CT with the wind howling 25-35 mph right out of the north pole. The container ghetto on my breezeway is covered with snow and doesn't appear to be bothered by the wind screaming through there. I've got all the 2 liter bottles surrounded with gallon milk jugs which seems to have eliminated the tipping over problem. I'm interested to see what happens once Ol' Man Winter eases his grip. Would hate to have done all this work for nothing.

The winter storm is in full swing here. Snow started falling this morning and accumulated fast. Now we have sleet falling on top of it. Supposed to continue for several more hours, changing back over to snow in the morning as the temps drop. If this were my first year to WS I would probably be worried about my sprouts. But I now know they will be fine. Like Token said, bring it on!

Token: Are you getting snow? In southeastern VA, the Snow Hope Index stands at 10. People are having snow dances.

The forecasters say this will be an historic storm, with the most snow since 1989. We are pumped!

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It started about 7pm. The wood heater is blazing, the house is up to 71 degrees with no supplemental heat. It's in the basement. LOL. It's like 90 down there.

We should end up with 4-6 inches, I think. I hope it snows all night, and doesn't turn into ice.

They've upgraded Sunday night's forecast. Now we're supposed to be 14 instead of 9. By the time Sunday gets here, it'll be 65 degrees.

The governor of VA declared a state of emergency today in order to pre-position equipment. Glad you're cozy. Stay safe.

Here is a link that might be useful: governor dot virginia dot gov

Well, we gotten at least an inch or two, the entire city has shut down (Chattanooga is NOT used to snow), and I drove the 20 minute round trip drive to get my kids from daycare in just over an hour. (They normally pre-salt the roads here - and pre-emptively shut down the schools - if one flake of snow threatens to fall. They didn't think this would be a big deal, so we were all driving on un-plowed, un-salted, snow covered roads. That was fun - NOT!)

Since this is my first year wsing, I'm still a little nervous, but I'm trusting the system. ;)

Nice photo! I'm glad you are tucked in and warm.

We should get between 7-12." It's been years since we had a good snow so people are very excited. This afternoon, the high temp was 30. In the hoop house ... 60! Amazing.

Weird weird no snow in Southern Ontario this year..here's me in the driveway last Christmas..
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Absolutely nothing except a dusting this year..the daffs actually poked their noses up last week (40F for a few days)
The daffs have seen sense since the temp is way below freezing again.
Lack of snow is weird though, especially since it's snowing in Texas!

Cute picture, Wendy.

The weather guys predicted that this front would stay south of us. On radar now it looks like it should be snowing here now, but none falling yet. It's 17 degrees. We went out to eat with friends last night and it was positively, miserably cold.

I think you folks in the south definitely have more wintersowing challenges in winter than those of us farther north. You get warm enough temps for lots of sprouts but then bouts of really cold weather, too. Up here it stays cold enough that we rarely see a sprout at this time of year.

In spring, the tables turn and we have more challenges. We start to see enough warmth for sprouting but still get deep freezes while the southerners are seeing constant spring warmth.

We have electric heat. Our bill was $325 last month, an all-time high. I thought that was bad until I talked to a couple of neighbors who had $375 and $395 bills.

I hear that there are lots of power outages in the south and midwest. I hope all of our friends are staying safe and warm.

Karen

It's sleeting here today. Should continue on and off all day until around midnight. Our low is in the mid-teens. Tomorrow, we won't get above freezing. By Friday, we'll be back in the 50s during the day.

Who is getting snow?

On Stingray Point VA, it's 22 and snowing so hard, I can barely see the neighbors' houses. The snow flakes are whirling with each gust of wind.The weather guys increased snow estimates to 8-13," and expect to increase it again this afternoon. The snow will continue into Sunday am.

Woohooo!!

We finally have a break from the snow. On Thursday the sun was actually out almost all day and I was in such a better mood. Since then it has been cloudy, but no rain or snow so I am not complaining! I am sooo ready for Spring to be here!

I hear you about the sun. It's finally out here. Seems like years since I've seen it. Granted, temp's only 26 and wind chill 13, but I just feel much better when I see sunshine.

We never did see any snow or rain from that storm. Unlike Pam, I'm very grateful for no snow.

Karen

With my old furnace (which was warmer), natural gas, I've had gas and elec as high as $400-500 per month in the winter. The cold set in sooner this year, have a more efficient furnace but not as warm, bill for two months (let stuff go 'cuz I don't feel like dealing with it), was $453. So that wasn't too bad for 2 months. They meter read by radio signal now.

This latest storm missed us, but I think it's harder in the south because they don't have the crews and stockpiles we do. We've had a couple bad ones already, I'm on a snow route so they get that fast, so unless you're on the hwy, you can usually get around. It did close some hwys for a time here.

It's been a really cold winter, will probably have more thru Feb and sometimes into March.

ABC's lead story was about your storm on its website. Our crews hit those main streets first with plows and salt, not to say it never happens here, but it's rare not to be able to get up hills. That's why I love my front-wheel drive, small car but works, those 4-wheel drives are too expensive but tons have them around here. When I was young, it was a huge problem finding a hill my dad could get up to get home from work; most of us here live up above the river valley.

Yipee, it's up to 21 now, supposed to warm up in the following days.

Well, Pam...not 'that' far from you and here in Buckroe Beach, VA (Hampton coast) we got hit pretty hard like they predicted. But I had not believed it since we rarely get it!! But i sure is beautiful !!!!

Boy oh boy, the birds are going nuts at my feeders out front. I guess since they're used to me, I awoke with doves sitting on my table and couch on the porch, and cardinal, too -- just feet from my BR window. I put a few seed trays and water down and now, can't tear myself away watching the doves, cardinals, dark-eyed juncos, sparrows, catbirds, and a few others I'm not sure about. And of course, the starlings !! Those little pigs. But no squirrels, thank God.

Hadda go rescue my cat from the snow. He's never seen it before, tried going out the back door and shot right back in again. But then he bolted out the front door at 8AM. Typically during colder weather, he's out and right back in (just to go do his business) so by the time lunchtime came and still no "Pinkey," I HADDA go looking for him. He was all huddled up under my neighbor's house, just a'crying all pitiful, scared to come out.

I finally had to trick him with treats, then grab him, all the while he was screaming. That is, until he was safe in "momma's arms. But now the dumbass wants out again. No way. I don't want to have to perform a 2ND rescue....LOL

My reaction may seem crazy, but we haven't had a good snow in more than 20 years. It's like someone shut off the snow switch. We'll get an inch or two once a year or less. Last year, the first frost was in January. You wonder if you'll ever see a good snowfall again.

We remember what snowy days were like --- snow angels, sledding, hot chocolate, warming up before a fire. The local weather station has a "Snow Hope Meter" and rituals to celebrate a snow event, even if it's pretty lame. This storm isn't lame. Its 23 degrees, winds 15-25 and building, big drifts forming, and ice may arrive tonight.

The forecast for Sunday and Monday is sunny but cold. On Tuesday, temps should be above freezing.

Good stories there, especially the birds, cat and excitement. I'll take the snow over the ice if it's 12" or under. Ice is what is more likely to take trees, big branches and power lines down plus is more slippery. We had 3 days of ice where I now (didn't use to phase me) go ahead of myself with a bucket of sand, but luckily the buildup wasn't bad. We've learned to walk on the snow (if we can) instead of the sidewalks when it's slippery.

The people I really feel for are, first the accidents, usually just fender benders but not always, and the power outages where they're saying 2 weeks. That's what frightens me the most. I keep thinking I ought to make contingency plans but never do.

I kind of envy the one who could fire up her woodburning stove, have thought about that for a back up but a little leery of just myself here to tend it and safety issues. I have a fireplace that would help for a little while but not for too long, am afraid to use it by myself any more which is kind of a shame. I've also toyed with getting a generator wired to the furnace so I could at least have heat but don't know if I could go around in the cold and get it started.

They didn't forecast snow for us today, said it would stay south toward the DC area. Surprise, we've got 2", but the real story is the cold. Its supposed to be in single digits tonight with the wind chill around 3 below. I just sowed my first jugs today and I think I'll wait a few days to put them outside. The birds have been going crazy at my feeders all day.

We also heat with two woodstoves and the house is a cozy 73. Hope everyone stays safe and warm during the storm.

Carol

AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!! I want the snow up here--that's why I moved here! I'd like to dump 2' on our local ski slope. I'm still new up here, but it seems to be a very low snow winter with very low temps. Snow is always good to protect plants overwintering in the ground, so I want more snow! I can't believe you guys in the south are getting snowed in!

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When we opened a door onto the deck before dinner ... wow! The lights on the top left are Christmas lights on the deck railing. It's nearly 11 now, and the snow is still falling... peaceful. The sun returns tomorrow but outside is bitter cold.

We only got about an inch total of ice and a tiny bit of snow on the bottom.

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