We have hit 22.8 only once. Since then, have been above 30 every day. If this continues I should have some amazing growth this spring.

Lowest in Sandbridge area of Virginia Beach has been 31. So far only 2 freezing nights and not a "hard freeze" so some things are still growing that would normally have been long gone. This is shaping up to be an even better winter than last year but we've got a long way to go. Feb is to be below normal last i heard.

The blizzard left a blanket of snow here which has been stubborn to burn off with the low sun angle....
this put and end to our nearly 3 week avg in December of 24/46F,almost 10F over avg.

Lowest temp so far is 5F

So far it's not been too cold. The lowest a couple
of weeks ago was 39 degrees for about an hour or so.
No damage to any plants. I hope that it will be
a mild winter here. Many tropicals can grow here, but
a freeze can be tough on the plants and they take awhile
to recover.

lowest so far has been 26 and later that day it got to around 74. Pretty large spread.

It was 20f when I came home from work the other morning but haven't seen anything lower than that. I'm more worried about Feb. and Mar. than this month

So far 29f.

I believe our coldest not wind chill temperature has been -10c or 14F. We've had a colder winter this year then last although we are above 0 Celsius for our daytime highs from now till next Sunday.

Dang Jim 5F super brrrr. My house the lowest was 26F the other morning. Still a 9b winter so far. Fingers crossed for a continuation of the same.

Click for weather forecast

If that is the coldest it gets that would be unheard of-last year was the first year I could find on record it didn't get below zero here....2F

Temps ranged 5F/70F in December,good weather for Zombies...

So far the official lowest in my yard has been 10 degrees. Good microclimate has kept us from slipping down into the single digits. A zone 8 winter in Michigan would be amazing and unbelievable if this is the coldest we get. Usually we'll just have one spell of temps in the single digits or lower per winter. Warmer temps near 40 are forecast later in the week and into the forseeable future.

Again I say I think that zone map really needs redoing. I am in 6B and it hasn't gotten into the teens yet..6b is suppose to be 0-5f and I'm no where close to that. If I can keep it in the double digits all winter for 2 years running I think a whole new world or plants just opened up.

24F here so far, my yard seems to be colder at night than other local stations by a few degrees, but when it comes to absolute minimals so far, we're still doing pretty good here! Looks like the next 10 days should be a breeze for the plants but winter is just getting started so there is a lot of time for that to change.

Mike, I definitely agree that the USDA map is flawed but my thinking is to just get an idea of how plants do in your yard and after a few years you can ignore the USDA map and learn through trial and error. But since I am even more into weather than I am into tropical gardening, that part of me would really like to see even more accurate USDA maps. The USDA map by me is pretty accurate (I'm right on the border of 7b and 7a according to the new map) but there are a lot of areas (like Virginia Beach for example) that need some more work (and the western states definitely have major flaws). Just remember that there is a lot of winter left and it only takes one cold night to take you from a winter minimal in the teens to a winter minimal in the single digits.

-Alex

A little off subject but guys which weather station besides the ones you own are most accurate for your area? The 3 weather stations I know of are wunderground.com, weather.com and accuweather.com. Sometimes each one is accurate or at least reads either the same temps as my own recorder reads or near it. And other times they are way off by like 3-5 degrees.

@ miketropic- I do agree with you that the maps need to be redone, revised and improved upon. They have so much more data for a lot of areas that they don't use. They use the data from the last 30 or so years only.

Although in way they do help out more then most people give them credit for. The problem lies with certain plants being fussy about this or that (and might not be so fussy about cold in particular as they are about duration of the cold or certain aspects of winter heat, or dryness of winter). Each area has a unique climate that in one way or more may not allow a certain plant to grow there even if the same zone according to absolute low only because it may not have all the conditions the other zone/climate has that makes it favorable to that plant.

That is why I like the SunSet zones better, although I can still show you erros it has and things it needs to change. Like one big issue it has is it has some zones that need to be split up or different zones completely because they cover too much of an area that don't quite have the same climate. And in some cases a transition zone would be useful if it existed.

Personally, I'd like to see a map that splits all the zones up in to their own seperate and unique zone based upon their climate and weather. Like the SunSet zones. That may add many zones but no two zones are alike anyway. And each zone should be based off its lowest average winter low, its record winter low, summer heat or no summer heat, hottest average high, record high, distinction of being overall humid or dry and duration and/or frequency of cold and cold weather. Thats a lot of info but written down like the sunset zone is it would be a useful guide to look at if need be. And zones that are close enough to be have features of more than one would be a transitional zone with facts about it. And like the sunset, I think they could add much more info about them and give an over view of what is very common to see in that zone. And I would also have side notes and special case notes where it links over to a forum where you can read about anything from zone pushing to controlling pests, to problem solving, to harvest dates.

And I'm sure the USDA has the resources to do all this and more.

But I don't think 2 years is enough data to really confirm a zone change. At the least I'd say near 10yrs or more.

I don't think it's as much the USDA map being flawed as it is that our weather and temperatures are changing. Florida seems to be getting colder and we Ontario (Toronto area specific) seem to be getting warmer. We averaged 2.1C for last winter. This winter we are a little colder but for the entire week starting yesterday we are 0c up to 7c in January.

When I was a kid, it never got over 0c and we had twice as much snow as we receive now. Last week we received I believe 10-15cm of snow. That was the largest single snowfall since March 2011 for us.

The temperatures they are a changing.

So far the lowest here has been 27. I've had a low of 27 in November, December and now January. I've had a total of 69 hours at or below freezing so far. Through this same date(Jan 5) last winter I had 93 hours. Last winters total was 187 compared to 556 the year before. Warm winters are nice for the heating bill, but not so much otherwise.

Jeff that is not a surprise. As certain areas become more urban they will continue to moderate in temps. Virginia Beach has certainly seen that, although the "official" temperature is taken at Oceana which always has been and always must be rural (no encroachment laws for the naval base).

29 so far here in Northeast Florida. Next 10 days look great with several days right at 80 for highs. If we can make it out of January, I think we'll be good down here cause this is our coldest month.

On a related subject. Weather.com had an article yesterday regarding this winter and if the worst is behind us. Basically wishy washy as usual but said probably won't see as much snow and expect February to be colder than normal.

I think most of us would like the zone maps changed according to what happened the year before or what is happening.

Not picking on anyone here but saying(for instance)that I
had a zone 7 winter last year might be accurate based on lows
but when you look at a true zone 7(whatever that means),like southern Missouri,you can't really compare the weather with
places to the north based on the low......true,I did have some plants come back that are not supposed to in my "zone"
but when you look at the temps here compared to southern Missouri=not the same thing.

The "zone" thing is kind of ridiculous really,even in a place like Saint Louis there are times in spring when it is in the 70s
there and only 30-40 here,those days add up in GDD etc,the same is true for here when you compare 70s here
and 30s in Michigan or Wisconsin or Minnesota...and those days add up and are what really defines the zones,of course if it is
2F here and only 10F somewhere else,many plants will not survive the lower temp but the amount of chilly/wet days takes it's toll too-it just takes longer.

Part of cold hardy palm survival is how fast the temps can rebound,so milder temps don't always win out over longer periods
of chilly weather without the extreme lows-it's a little more complex than that.

O.K.-thats my rant for the day.(-:

Just from what I have seen in my yard I don't think I can say the cold has ever killed anything..its the cold + wet that kills it off. If I had a dry dry winter at 15F I would be much happier then a wet winter at 25F. I know the zones are set up by temp mins and such but the rainfall and moisture seem to have alot more to do with it for me than the low temps do. If I can keep stuff dry I have much better results in the spring.Since this one has been so wet but not that cold IDK how my canna rhizomes and bulbs will be come spring. I predict a rotten mess..

Just from what I have seen in my yard I don't think I can say the cold has ever killed anything..its the cold + wet that kills it off. If I had a dry dry winter at 15F I would be much happier then a wet winter at 25F. I know the zones are set up by temp mins and such but the rainfall and moisture seem to have alot more to do with it for me than the low temps do. If I can keep stuff dry I have much better results in the spring.Since this one has been so wet but not that cold IDK how my canna rhizomes and bulbs will be come spring. I predict a rotten mess..

10.4F so far, previous low was 18.8F. December as a whole was 7F above normal though with an average of 46/33.

As far as what is the most accurate forecast, I can't tell you, they are all hit or miss. I like weather underground because there are so many different microclimates where I live, they show 5 different locations in our town. Our official forecast is based in a cold pocket and temps can vary as much as 10F depending on the location and the day. Typically the wide variances are found during the lows as it is very hilly here and some places are closer to the rivers, etc... I find the highs typically are similar in all of the locales, although humidity and heat index can vary quite a bit as well.

Mike

Very true-you don't have to look any further than the Washys in the great southwest,some of those have come back from
temps below zero,pretty safe to say that would never happen here....mainly for that reason.

Over night low, so far the lowest has gone down to 26f.

So far, 34-35F in my yard.

Bradleyo nice observation re: different climates within a city. I've found a surprise"trick" for each major site in order to get a more accurate forecast for Virginia Beach. To avoid Oceana info I search for Dam Neck (weatherunderground), Sandbridge (Accuweather) or Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge (Weather Channel). My zip code 23456 also works for Weather Channel and Dam Neck's zip code 23461 works for wunderground. All are located in va bch.

So far the lowest here at my place in Flour Bluff (east side of Corpus Christi, Texas) has been 34.7F. At the airport (about 18 miles inland from here), where the official temps are taken, it got down to 29F that same morning. Here in Flour Bluff, it usually gets down to about 30 or 31F at least once each winter, and at the airport it normally gets down to about 25 or 26F at least once each winter.

As far as the USDA Zone Map is concerned, most of Corpus Christi used to be ranked as Zone 9A, with only the Bayfront and Flour Bluff Zone 9B, with North Padre Island barely borderline Zone 10A. Now all of Corpus Christi is ranked Zone 9B, and I therefore estimate the far east end of the Bayfront and Flour Bluff to be borderline Zone 10A, with North Padre Island being a solid Zone 10A (on the island, they usually don't get below 32F even on the coldest morning in the winter). The all time record low for Corpus Christi is 11F, and I estimate the all time record low for Flour Bluff to be 13 or 14F, and probably about 15F for North Padre Island. The Corpus Christi area can go 10-15 years at a time without dropping below 20F, and the Brownsville area in the Lower Rio Grande Valley can go for 20-30 years at a time without dropping below 20F, which is why coconut palms can stand a much better chance of making it for longer in the Rio Grande Valley and actually produce coconuts more often than here in the Corpus Christi area.

Your coconut in Corpus Christi would be in grave peril in an average winter wouldn't it? They can't take much below 30 can they?

It could be but as long as temps rebound and the freeze wasn't too bad (like above 27/28f for a short duration only) it would recover nicely each year. The Southern part of Texas would have plenty of warmth.

But wow! The all time record low in an area that warm is that cold? All time record low for my area is 18f. The rest of the records are set at/above 20f.

- US_Marine

26* is coldest so far and that was last week. Nothing below 33* in 10 day forecast and topping out near 60 next week. Good January so far, like last year.

Hey LagoMar and US Marine, the reason it can get so much colder here in South Texas than it does in South Florida even though we are on the same latitude as they are is because we have the continental plains states to the north of Texas with no mountain ranges or very large bodies of water to stop or significantly moderate Arctic cold fronts that have occasionally over the last 100+ years come straigt south from Canada. In South Florida, they are on the far southeast side of the North American continent, with the Ozark Mountains (small moutain range) to their northwest and the Appalachian Mountains to their north as well as the entire northern and central Gulf of Mexico to their west and northwest to buffer them. South Florida, also traditionally had the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee as well as the many lakes, rivers, and springs in Central Florida to buffer them to the north. This last effect has been severely diminished in the last 30+ years due to the extreme over-development of South and Central Florida that has virtually dried up what used to be a lush moist tropical/subtropical climate. They have had severe droughts for many of the last 20+ years, and this lowers the humidity and dewpoint, which means their temps can drop like a rock now too in the winter. South and Central Florida has had some very bad winters recently.

As far as coconut palms are concerned, here in Corpus Christi they are a very rare novelty that people can grow in a protected microclimate (especially here in Flour Bluff or on North Padre Island) for about 5+ years at a time if we are lucky before a bad winter kills them. In the Lower Rio Grande Valley, though, especially in Brownsville (the southernmost point in Texas) and at the immediate coast in Port Isabel and South Padre Island, coconut palms can make it as long as 10-15+ years at a time, and even produce coconuts when the palms are given enough water.

It looks like they are expecting a big chill down after a lot of mild weather in the super extended--which I take with a grain of salt. Still, we went from an extended forecast of subarctic cold (20/7 F.) this morning, to normal after the January heat wave in just a few hours, so won't panic yet!