enjoy, it's been much cooler here as well. They keep prmissing us sun but the clouds have eeb around for 4 days. We are supposed to be back in the mid 80s by Sunday so the growing season isn't over yet.

I can finally stand outside in my yard, with a jacket!!! Its really pretty cold here. Its the middle of the afternoon and its only in the upper 60s and cloudy!!! Its also raining a little so its just a terrible day to be outside here! I want summer back :( Thankfully the mid to upper 80s will be back for next week with ample sunshine (YES!).

I hope you guys in the east catch up on your rain-

I am hoping for a dry Sept-Oct or better yet-Oct-Nov!

Yeah, it looks like we are starting to catch up here! Im hoping for a nice, sunny and dry winter. The rain here is usually really cold during the winter and snow almost always starts off as a cold rain or mix which is really a killer for the palms.
Good luck! I hope we all have a warm fall!!!
-Alex

I wouldn't be too surprized if the west has early frost this fall/winter do to the cooler weather or if a cold front does come this way. Its got me thinking about winter protection for my inground coconut palm, and marking the calender when I'll bring my original coco in.
Hopfully winter will stay average or better yet milder. Has anyone else been planning ahead?
Hope everyone has above average temps for fall and winter :) Good luck everyone.

We started getting cooler last night,lows for this week in the high 60s.The daytime temps.are still getting into the mid 90s,but with a lot less humidity.I can actually do stuff outside without looking like I jumped into a swimming pool with all my cloths on.The weather man said we are going back into a drought period again.I hope it doesn't last 5yrs like the last one.I hope everyone has a mild fall and winter :)

Us marine, Im thinking ahead, but kind of skipping over winter, lol. Im already figuring out what Im planting next year! Fortunately they are expecting a mild winter for the east coast (but sadly they are predicting a cooler winter for the west coast). Some people are saying that early winter will be below average for the east (maybe even the possibility of an earlier frost?). Apparently however, it is suppose to be warmer overall. Im hoping for much less winter precipitation! I still plan on using the same protection only now I need more of it (since I have more palms in the ground). I also need some new thermometers since this year I would like to monitor all the palm's enclosures and not just my pindo palm enclosure. And Im planning on having a nicer spot indoors for my coco palm and some other plants too since they struggled in early spring last year.
Randy, Looks like dry weather here too! Im not sure how long it will last here though. I would rather have a nice dry period during the winter!!!
Good luck everyone. Im sure some of the country will have a good winter and some of us a bad one, but hopefully all our palms pull through and we have lots of success stories to share in the spring!!
-Alex

We have been UNUSUALLY cool the past few days for August. In fact, We've only had a few 90+ days so far this August, when normally it is our hottest month. The cold fronts that make it this far south usually are not much more than a change in wind direction, and maybe a few degrees cooler. This really has not been because of a cold front, but rather a stubborn upper level low pressure that was out over the Ocean off the NE coast that retrograded (moved back west and inland) and has been basically sitting over us or just to our northeast for a few days. Last week we had a stalled out front that brought two days of low pressures riding up the front and flooding, cool rainy days..etc, then a sunny break over the weekend. Now this retrograding low since monday with highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 60s. That is almost unheard of for August for here. The rest of this week from today forward should be mid 80s, then upper 80s for the weekend and a return to the 90s next week. It has been like very cool, tropical environment. Cool, moist, humid with very tropical skies. The sunny days have seen florida like heavy thunderstorms in the mid afternoon, usually around 3-4PM dumping around an inch, then back to the sunshine. Very unusual for August for the DC area for sure, especially the temps!

Its more like mid October some days than August! I hope the heat comes back and we have a nice, and LONG indian summer!

Hard to say what's going to happen on the coast's this winter.

It does look like a cold winter out west if the pattern of the last 3 years holds.....
wherever the cold sets up in summer stays in winter-we shall see.

I do believe we will see an earlier frost this year,at least where I am and possibly in the east as well.

That's fine with me,the tropicals really don't move much in October anyway and my palms need some
true cold spells with freezing temps or they do not harden off in time for winter!

A dry/sunny cold Oct-Nov would suit me just fine.

us marine-

I have been purchasing my supplies now to protect this winter-my new motto is-"Protect early,uncover early"-

the logic at least for my palms here,is that once the palms are hardened off for winter they are pretty bomb proof!
They just need to be kept dry/top and bottom until it warms up and soil temps regain 50f at 8"

If they sustain damage early,they are in danger all winter/early spring!

Well they just changed our weather forecast for this week.Now there saying were going to have temps.in the mid 80s to 90 during the day,and low 70s at night.Now there also saying were going to have very high humidity till this weekend.I don't think they can make there mind up.People I work with,transplants to here,tell me Georgia has some strange weather.Our temps.can fluctuate a lot from night temps.to day temps.in fall and winter.Winter is the when temps.fluctuate the most.I tell people if you don't like the weather in Atlanta just wait a day or two it will change.That's why it's so hard to protect palms here in winter,one week it might be in the 40s for highs,then the next week it might be in the high 60s to 70 degrees.Sometimes it changes like that from day to day.The protection I will build will need to have a vent or a top you can open on warm days in winter,so the plants don't fry.I might make a vent or top that opens and closes according to what the temp.is.All it would take is a small electric motor and a temp.guage.That way if its cold in the morning when I leave to go to work,it will be closed.If it gets warm during the day,it will open automatically and close again when temps.drop again in the evening.Maybe even have a heater or lights that would come on when it gets really cold.I'll have to think about this more and come up with prototype,to see how well it works.It's just a idea,because how much our temps.fluctuate so much from night to day and one week to the next.

Here in southern Ontario, the weather has been absolutely fantastic. It has been sunny and warm. It is supposed to cool down to 24 but has been around the 30's for the last month or so. Great for the tropcials and the beer consumption :)

I have been enjoying the break in the heat but we haven't had a cold front or even a cool front. An northeast wind off the ocean with cloudy skies and showers leaves us around 69-74 uauslly. Its 69*F w/ showers & high humidity which the palms, Spanish moss and really all the plants are loving. We are catching up with some rain:)

VERY fall like this morning. It fell to 52 last night and is only supposed to hit 74 today. At least it is completely sunny. The outlying areas are suppoed to fall into the mid 40s tonight. I live in the city so it is supposed to fall to about 50 near me. Then a very nice warm up again but without all of the humidity
Fri 78 Sat 82 Sun 85 Mon 87. All sunny

Good forecast:)

Weather has just gone from HOT, HUMID and DROUGHT to HOT, DRY, and DROUGHT. 7-10 day forecast calling for nothing but sun and heat to the mid 90's.--Great beach weather!!

Jim-
Has this late August heat hit you?

90s the last 3 days at my house,

Was still in the 80s at 9pm last night.

Supposed to cool off again by Thursday!

I love it!

I have had enough heat this summer already,40+ days over 90

(3 last year!-none in July!)several days in the 100+ column,

well over a 100 days 80+!

35+ inches of rain since May 10th!
Into the soup(humidity) and clouds today,like the tropical weather of June with 3-5" of rain 'possible' mid week.

Ready for fall at this point!

Plenty of 90s and 80s here. Not like you but still plenty warm. At least this hot stretch is dry. When it was 93 today the humidity was 33%. This is my 6th year groing palms and we I have never seen 100. I think a 97 back in 2005 is the hottest I've seen. I can remember in the late 80s when 100 wasn't that big a deal. Enjoy your cool off. I wish it could hold off until after the holiday. I'm taking my kids up north to Higgins lake which is considered one of the 6 most beautiful in the world (no bs, it was fomed by a glacier, is all sand with blue water like the carribean. It gets to be about 150 feet so the water never gets too warm. Problem is it's supposed to be 65 there Saturday and the hit close to 90 today.

If it ain't one thing it's another(-;

Have a great trip Andy.

Lower 90s here so I guess that is cooler lol.

Today should be our last mid 90s day here for a while after Earl cools us off to the 70s and 80s.

We shattered all the records in NYC for the hottest summer a few days ago with ~33 or so days of *90+ heat. It was just too dry and I was stuck watering way too much.

Weird we had 45+ 90f days and no records,not even close to being a record hot month or summer but we do have extremes of weather/temps here!

I think this is just the beginning of the hot summers !

It is the warmest summer in the last 15 years here. 4 degrees warmer than average. 6 degrees warmer then last years cool summer. No records here either.

Our July was 10 F warmer than last July!
2009 avg hi-80f
2010 avg hi-90f

Number of days 90 or +90 this July(2010)compared to last July(2009)

23-0