It just figures, doesn't it! Today our forecast high was 33 and we went up to 39 degrees at our house, even though our Mesonet station was closer to 33. Our temps have been all over the place lately....much higher than forecast, much lower than forecast, etc. It's like our temperature is going out of its way to be as far off from the forecast as possible. I have been so sure that our thermometers are malfunctioning that we've added more and now have 5 or 6 or 7 thermometers around the property. All of them reached 39 degrees today in the shade. Even the one in the garage was 39, but all the garage doors were open, so I wouldn't have expected it to be warmer than 39. I'm not complaining because 39 degrees sure felt nicer than 33 would have, but I don't understand why our temps suddenly can't even get close to the forecast. So, tonight we're scheduled to go down to about 12. It will be interesting to see if we hit that forecast, go higher or go lower. Because our dewpoint is very low, I bet we go lower. At least we had sunshine here today. Everything started melting off, although there's still a lot of ice and snow on the east side of buildings and large trees. The east side of the barn and house have icicles about a foot long. I think in another day or two all the frozen stuff will be gone, but that will leave nothing but mud. Have I mentioned today that I hate winter? I know I said it yesterday and the day before.

It is over, and I guess we made it through a potentially bad day without major trouble. Now, here comes the rain.

Y'all, Our local forecaster upped our chance for rain turning to snow tomorrow from 40% to 50% and I'm not thrilled about that. He's pretty good too. He's been a meteorologist here in the Texoma region for about 26 years and he is right a whole lot more often than he is wrong. He's still saying 1-2" and nothing to get really excited about but that's not much comfort to the folks who still have trouble getting out of their driveways. I'm more worried about his use of the terminology "rain turning to snow" because that means there is a chance we'll have freezing rain as it makes the transition and freezing rain coats and brings down power lines and trees. (As if I even have to state the obvious after all that so many of you have suffered through the last few years with ice storms.) Susan, Poor Del Rio. I didn't look at a zone map but I'm guessing they are probably zone 8b or 9a. Their semi-arid and subtropical plants won't be crazy about the cold, but Del Rio gets so very little moisture that I bet everyone will be excited about that. It seems like they'll get a light snow maybe once or twice a decade there, so I suppose if anything falls, everyone will be thrilled to see it. (They can have our snow too if they want it!) I guess the recurring colder-than-average temps and rain, sleet and snow are giving us just what El Nino is expected to bring, but that doesn't mean we have to like it. Let's hope El Nino gets bored with torturing our region and moves on. Santa Claus brought all of us new hats and gloves for Christmas and I guess maybe he should have brought snow boots and sleds too. LOL Dawn

Shelley, The official temperatures are measured at 5' above the ground, so the temperature at whatever height your tomatoes are growing could be different from the temperature that was officially recorded. It sounds like you and your plants got lucky. Sometimes at 32 degrees, you don't get frost settling on the plants if the wind is blowing at a certain level all night. Sometimes I've had plants with no damage at 30 or 31 degrees and I've had them totally frozen at 32 degrees. There are lots of variables involved including how long you stay at or below freezing, the dewpoint, the RH, the wind speed, etc. How long your temperature stays at or below freezing also matters. A few minutes at 32 degrees might not harm a plant, especially if no frost forms, but a couple of hours might. If your temperature drops to 28 degrees, that is considered a hard freeze and generally tomato plants are very severely damaged or dead from a hard freeze. With a light freeze or a light frost, you might have plant damage but not plant death. If your ground was fairly warm, then maybe between it and the fence, there was enough absorbed heat to radiate back at the plants and keep them warm enough to avoid damage. Having sloping property, there have been times when the plants at the lower portion of the garden either froze or had some frost damage while the plants at the higher elevation in the garden had no damage. I've also seen hit and miss freeze and frost damage where some tomato plants are dead, some are damaged and some are pretty much untouched. I always plant a couple of rows of tomato plants at the highest part of the sloping garden plot so that I know at least some of the tomato plants have a good chance of surviving. Carol, Man, that was too cold. I thought it felt really chilly when I stepped outdoors and it was 44 degrees. Of course, a couple of mornings ago, when I stepped outside first thing around sunrise it was 63 degrees, so naturally 44 would feel cold by comparison.u,. I was surprised when I woke up early this morning and saw they had added a lot more counties to the Freeze Warning and Frost Advisory categories. I'd be mad if I went to sleep expecting the plants to be fine in the morning, and woke up and found them frosted or frozen. Sometimes it happens though, as the weather doesn't always behave as expected. I hope this was the last cold night of the spring. We don't want the Easter Bunny freezing his little cotton tail while he's out hiding the Easter eggs. Dawn