We didn't have a freeze warning or a frost advisory or anything here in Love County but I never trust the forecast lows here in April. I brought in all the seedlings and had nothing in the ground that could freeze. At the last minute when it was nearly dark, Tim and I covered up the lettuce with a frost blanket because our temperatures were dropping more quickly than I thought they should. I know from experience that a forecast low of 34 here often means we'll actually see 30, 28, 26 or 24. Or worse. Our Forecast Low: 34 Our Actual Low: 26 At almost 4 a.m., the Fort Worth office of the NWS issued a Frost Advisory for the counties across the river from us. I hope the gardeners in those counties covered up their tender plants last night. I was prepared. Our local CBS TV meteorologist said on the evening news that he thought many parts of our area could go below the forecast low and even down into the 20s and that there would be some "patchy frost". By then, I'd already brought everything inside, but his words helped convince me to cover up the lettuce. I know it can take very cold weather, but it has had such hot weather (upper 80s and 90s) that I wasn't sure how much cold it would tolerate. I expect that my baby peaches and plums froze and will start dropping from the trees. With the strawberries and blackberries that are blooming, I think it is iffy. I've had frost and temps this low hurt them some years and not other years, so there's a 50-50 chance they'll be OK. I've linked the Minimum Temperature Recorded map that shows the lowest temp recorded at the OK Mesonet stations. It looks to me like most of the state went at least as cold as forecast or, like our place, colder than forecast. The weather this year is yo-yoing so wildly. It is hard on all our plants, even the cool-season ones, to have highs in the 80s one day and then have the lows plunge to the 20s. We'll probably be back in the 80s in a day or two. Can our weather get any more bizarre? Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Today's Minimum Air Temperatures (Mesonet)

Diane, Poor little Nellie. Glad she's recovering from the heat exhaustion and so sorry to hear about the tonsillitis. It's not easy being 4 years old. The cure for anything at that age? Popsicles! Ice cream! Jello! Pudding! (Well, if I was an overheated 4-year-old OR a 4-year-old with tonsillitis, that's what I would want!) Your hubby is able to tinker and fix and build anything, I think, which is great! The folks at the electric company are already hard at work calculating how much their profit is going to rise....and it is all coming from your pockets! I don't know what's worse in the summer: watching the electric bill skyrocket when the heat arrives or watching the water bill creep higher and higher when the rains don't fall. Plants are just going to burn up in this heat. What are you going to do? (sigh) Sometimes you can't water them enough to save them (even if you try). Last year I lost one shrub in a row of shrubs. Undoubtedly it was because of the drought, but I'd watered them all the same. The others made it and that one didn't. I guess I probably should be grateful only 1 shrub died. At least a cold front is coming although, of course, the use of the word "cold" is relative. For us, it will mean perhaps an 8-10 drop in the temperature on Sunday from Saturday and, of course, if that happens we'll be thrilled....but we'll be plenty hot even with the 8-10 degree drop. Dawn

bumping this down

Paula, I'm glad you got them all picked. I'm betting you have a frost this morning too. It was so cold by the time I went to bed last night that I wondered if I'd wake up to an unexpected frost here this morning and you can't go much further south than I am and still be in OK. So far, it isn't frosty out there, but we're at 42 degrees and they said 44....and it's over an hour until sunrise so we could drop another degree or two just before the sun comes up.....brrrr! I do think the high humidity just makes it worst for frost, doesn't it? If this were a dry, droughty year there might not be enough moisture in the air to form frost, but it certainly is not dry or droughty. Our humidity right here right now is 97%. Not only is it cozy houseshoe time, but flannel PJ time and also time to drag out the jackets and fleece-lined boots. I am SO not ready for cold weather, but we're going to have it anyway. Those deer hunters and their "deer camps" and cold weather! I am glad someone is enjoying the 'cool' weather. LOL George, Oh no! I tried to post warnings last night as soon as I saw them, but it was already late and dark and probably not as useful as it would have been....I guess we should have been watching the weather earlier in the day. I think we all still were reeling from the heavy rain and weren't real focused on "frost". Whatever plants managed to survive (and I hope most if not all did survive) Friday night are still in trouble for Sat. night, so watch your forecast closely. When I looked at the Tulsa forecast for tonight, it said "35 degrees" and that is likely to be a problem for your plants. They've got a Freeze Warning for the OK panhandle and adjacent parts of TX and KS, and a Freeze Watch for several counties in NW OK. I think Saturday night is going to be a bad night for everyone in zone 6 in OK and the freezing conditions may dip down into parts of zone 7. It is WAY too early for this. Keep us posted. Maybe y'all had just enough light wind to protect everything, or maybe it is "just a touch" of frost and not a hard killing frost. The forecast for those of you in northern OK has me so spooked I may pick all my tomatoes and peppers and green beans and cukes today....just in case. Remember, George, you and I both have experienced the shock of having a 50-degree forecast low turn into the lower 30s and dead plants. Dawn