Been watching what's going on around the Fort all day. Hope it doesn't get too bad for you. Had enough of that crap in Jan 2009. We have been lucky so far. Just a bit of freezing rain this morning and mostly sleet since, which is ALLOT easier to deal with. That, and supposed to change to significant snow tonight (hope so). I'll be rooting for you to get to at least sleet to minimize the damage.

Arktrees

Good looking land, J.

Dax

That's not a very nice way to treat a holly...is/was that a Foster-type (Ilex x attenuata)?

Keeping fingers crossed against the onslaught ahead for us...

Nobody is sure what that storm is going to do once it hits us on Sunday...the NWS forecast last night actually said something like...

SNOW...RAIN...FREEZING RAIN...OR SLEET...HIGHS IN THE LOWER 30S.

Well, OK. So something will fall from the sky. Got it.

oh my oh my.. the sky is falling .. lol ..

you warmer zone peeps ought to spend a winter or two in MI MN ... WI ...

btw jon doe ... fine pix.. thx ..... i know its magical.. for those who dont see it all that often ...

ken

John may not be on for a few days to update his post. They were hit with a severe ice storm yesterday and last night, much worse than had been forecast. See picture below for the severity index, John is located in the general area of the green dot (hope you don't mind John, but this is for you as well when you get back online), and as you can see he is likely located in the worst damage area. For an explanation of the what to expect for each area see the link at the bottom of the post. As a side note this index has been developed by the Tulsa National Weather Service over the last 10 years or so, and is not beginning to be adopted in many other NWS offices. So you are likely to see more of it.

Arktrees

{{gwi:497367}}

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:497308}}

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Posted by viburnumvalley z5/6 KY (My Page) on
Fri, Dec 6, 13 at 8:57

That's not a very nice way to treat a holly...is/was that a Foster-type (Ilex x attenuata)?
***

Looks like some sort of cotoneaster...

Ken, you can stop reading here. Just boring ice storm info below. Have you ever been in a Freezing Rain warning btw? It is certainly an intimidating threat for me!

{{gwi:497369}}

We got hit pretty hard with the freezing rain. About an inch+ accumulation. About 4-6" snow which not a big deal normally but when it adds onto all the ice on the trees that's a different story. The other side of town is a disaster area. Many trees are just toothpicks surrounded by a wreath made from their branches. Winds should pick up tonight when our lows get in the single digits. This will likely cause more outages. It will really suck the big one if we lose power over the next few days. Wind chills in the -teens forecast to go with low single digit temps. There will be some rural areas that go without power for up to a couple weeks because of this.

The holly is a youpon holly and I swear I meant to get up close pics when I was out there. I'll get some later!

And GOOD LUCK to those of you in this storms path! Hope it you guys make it through unscathed.

On to pics =)

Destroyed winged elm

{{gwi:497371}}{{gwi:497373}}

Here is the dogwood from yesterday:

{{gwi:497375}}
{{gwi:497376}}{{gwi:497377}}

Sycamore and cottonwood

{{gwi:497378}}{{gwi:497379}}{{gwi:497380}}

Callery pears *snicker*

{{gwi:497382}}{{gwi:497383}}{{gwi:497386}}{{gwi:497389}}{{gwi:497391}}

Cedrus deodora 'Popsicle'

{{gwi:497393}}

Misc

Here is a link that might be useful: Forecast - if they verify, they would be the coldest temps since we moved here

Very early for such cold in your zone. I'm a half-zone colder than you, and we aren't expecting any worse than lower teens next week when the core of the cold hits us.

Just as I'd expect, the Callery Pears in your pics fared the worst. Your Sycamore and even the Cottonwood look OK to me.

John,
Glad to see your own trees are OK. I will never scoff at an ice storm. The one I had in 2009 reducing trees to only trunks (and yes that included the so call ice storm resistant trees) if there was anything left standing at all, made quit the impression on me. Hopefully the utilities are much better prepared this time around. My S.O.'s parents were without power for over 3 weeks in 2009. For some people it will be a loooonnnnggggggg haul to getting back to some sibilance of normal.

For my area, since power etc are fine here, I'm hoping for deep sub-zero tonight. Time to kill back the Mimosa Albizia julibrissin, and the few Chinaberry Melia azedarach or Paulownia present locally again, along with whatever other invasive it can kill.

Arktrees

"oh my oh my.. the sky is falling .. lol ..
you warmer zone peeps ought to spend a winter or two in MI MN ... WI ... "

Yea, and you colder zone peeps ought to stop having heat strokes when the temp reaches 95F three days in summer.

We missed this round just to the north thankfully, but now they say we might get it tomorrow night when the next wave comes through. Like the snow and sleet but not the freezing rain.

Ark - I take it you don't have any zone-marginal trees yourself hardiness-wise?

Hair,
Actually I have a couple. Our Shantung appears to be southern seed source and so not so happy with really cold weather, and our Oklahoma Redbud is rated 6b. But both of those have already survived -25 a couple years ago (redbud flowers were killed, and was some mild damage to the Shantung), so I'm not too worried about them. Similar story with a couple Japanese Maples. Only real concern is a Atlas Cedar that was planted one year ago. If it gets zapped, then I will start over with another one.

Beyond that, nearly everything locally native survived (though sometimes with some damage like the native sumac), and most of the non-natives (except those I listed above) as well in 2011. So a good -10 would be excellent for the invasive species I listed.

Arktrees

I hope for the same thing here to kill off the Kudzu.

Couple more pics

The holly

{{gwi:497408}}{{gwi:497411}}

and a bald cypress

{{gwi:497414}}

If it does get single digits lows with highs in the upper teens to low twenties, I really feel for anyone with prolonged power outages.

Are you going to try to break the ice off your trees, or let them go & see what happens?

They are on their own, hair. I tried messing with one of my newly acquired sugar maples, but after several minutes of TLC, I hadn't made much progress...

Jon, nice pics! Anyways loved the icey plant shots.

Btw never try to remove the ice, you'll do more damage...especially if the plants are frozen. You will want to shake the snow loose if it starts to build up though. Man, that cedar is holding up real nice!

We get an ice storm close to what you show in your first set of pics every year but never get real thick build over an 1/8".

Sure could use some snow here. Lows of 8, 4. 3, 1 and 1 coming up this weekend/week. I've already braced myself for a rough winter.

I'm a couple counties north in SW Missouri and the ice is good to a point for cold protection, too much and cracked branches. Great insulator for those plants not so use to the cold blast. I think it's the coldest we have had this time of year since the late '50s our weatherman said. I have some live oaks (Fusiformis) and this will be the coldest since I planted them 4 years ago. 1 to 3 Degrees low tonight, however looking at Oklahoma where many grow and areas west of there were they grow naturally, same temps as me, so I am hopeful. Also have crape myrtle, and Giant Sequoia but don't think any problem there. We had sleet, then about 5 inches of snow.

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Posted by hairmetal4ever Z7 MD (My Page) on
Fri, Dec 6, 13 at 15:51

I hope for the same thing here to kill off the Kudzu.
***

It took -20F in 1985 to kill most, but not all the kudzu, in SW VA. Also took out most of the mimosas and cryptomeria.

j0nd03, interesting that the southern mag doesn't look as affected as some of the deciduous trees, despite the exposed leaf-area. Stout, relatively short branches help.

It's been pretty bad on the trees. They hadn't lost all their leaves, so the damage is extensive here in Dallas. This is the top of my Shumard Red Oak.

bk

Time to pull out this link again. See link below for methods of restoration pruning. These techniques were developed at the University of Florida to deal with hurricane damage, but they will also work for pretty much any kind of storm damage. Follow these guidelines, and many of your trees can be restored. Most "tree services" will just hack and chop, and top, so arm yourselves with knowledge and don't let them tell you otherwise. Hope it helps someone.

Arktrees

http://hort.ufl.edu/woody/restore.shtml

Here is a link that might be useful: Restoration Pruning

Bkay, I sure hate to hear/see that. My little live oak is about 7' normally but is sprawled out on the ground right now. I don't think it is permanently damaged, though. I have several 30-40' southern red oaks that keep their leaves through most of winter that have lost their tops. I can only imagine how much worse the damage would be if they were evergreen like your live oaks. At least the red oaks dropped a few leaves already.

Mine isn't a live oak. Mine is a shumard red oak. We have had a mild fall, so my Shumard wasn't even brown/red yet. Most of the red oaks in the neighborhood were red/brown and my little Texas red oak was red, but my Shumard is the last one to lose it's leaves. I think it's a goner. The whole top of it is broken. It was probably 40' tall. DH and I planted it when we moved here. I'll wait and see what it looks like when it thaws, but I don't have much hope.

bk

Looks like an ice-storm may take a swipe at the mid-Appalachians today. We'll see....

Bkay, you clearly stated it was a shumard in your post. I don't know why I was fixated on it being a live oak. Still, sorry for your loss. Even with the central leader broken, trees can make new leaders off of the side branched that shoot straight up. This happens fairly often when mature trees are topped and their central leader is removed. It certainly won't be as attractive for a while, but if it makes it and makes some new leaders, it will have some nice character to it in a decade =)

Also looks like the Dallas area got hammered. I saw a solid sheet of ice measured 2" thick on one of the highways. Holy crap!! I can't imagine how many accidents have happened

bk,
Please take a look at the restoration pruning link I posted. IMHO, you can save your tree if you follow those guidelines, though it will take several years, and multiple pruning's. I saw these techniques used on some severely damaged Oaks (like yours) in our 2009 ice storm, and the trees are looking pretty good today.

Arktrees

this kind of weather might predict a major earth quake in 2014 ...

Our Shumard was bent, but not broken as it likely would have been if hit with the 2nd or 3rd inch of ice dropped on some neighborhoods a bit to our north. A little more than an inch will increase leaf weight by about 20X on marcescent trees (like many oaks) that refuse to be stripped. Add a little wind and the region is left with a lot of damaged trees, though worst hit around here seemed to be oaks, Callery pears (duh), and desert willow. Photo shows the difference of 18 days and an inch+ of ice.

Only broken limbs on our neighbor's massive red oak are large distal branches that filled very rapidly into canopy space vacated by a large fruitless mulberry we removed about 20 months ago. They were already 2 to 4 inches in diameter and 6 to 12 feet long. I'm assuming they broke because this fast growth made them relatively weaker than the rest of the tree. Anyone know if that is right?

At least that little ornamental tree looks like it will keep its ornamental shape, bostedo.

Like you, we were very near the worst of the ice that happened about 3-5 miles to my east. As I mentioned above, many trees in that area are just tooth picks now.

So far, the ice storm I experienced in 2000 was much worse over a larger area than this one locally. Still, this storm was truly a crippling storm from here in the heartland where it began all the way to the east coast.

Several branches broken around the place mostly on larger trees. However, the damage that hit me the hardest was losing the last three years this magnolia spent on making a new leader. Interesting to me that the leader (which was a replacement leader I began training when I planted it and the original leader died) failed not at the branch/trunk union but it just in the middle of the woody stem. There was some bark tearing but it was a pretty clean break.

4" of very wet, sticky snow here yesterday, enough to plaster the lower branches of my S mag flat on the ground, but they've already popped up somewhat this morning. No damage. I did have to shake off my longleaf pines last nite, but they're OK too.