My palms at 12-14F low on Monday (Jan.6-7) night and till Wednesday (Jan. 8, with probably 16-18F as low) in Orangeburg county, SC, status as of Jan. 18 (10-12 days past the freeze): Washingtonia robustas adult size, browned a lot, but fronds not broken, center still somehow green Phoenix sylvestris (1+ foot trunk): mostly brown, but some light silvery green in the middle, so it may survive Pindo-Queen hybrid, 5 ft. tall overall, in a pot - became olive in colour, but seems still ok. Wash. robustas in pots, size 4-5 feet - browned a lot, mostly, still alive. Those in Orangeburg and Columbia are also damaged, mostly brown. Chilean-Pindo hybrids, size 1-2 ft. in pots outside as well - no damage. Butia capitata and other small Butias in pots (eriospatha, yatay etc.) - no damage except some browning of some ends of some fronds and some yellowing on central spear on some. Greek date palms - 1-2 ft. size in pots - olive to brownish by now, but alive (have some available) Bismarck palm seedlings in pots, were covered with nursery pots, survived! (have some available) Australian fans 15 gal. size (protected from rain only) - both dried and pulled spears... probably will die. Medjools (1-2 ft. in pots) - some damage but ok CIDP (5 footer, in pot) seem it won't make it, although others seem hardier, perhaps already nativized Wash. filifera in pot and in the ground - a lot of browning, especially by rain + cold, look bad but not broken yet All of the above hate temps under 20F and washies brown under 26F. Best temps for palms are 28F and up! Mediterranean fans - very little to no damage, more damage may show later, because they hate temps under 16F Windmills and wagner palms - no damage Sabals - no damage Looks like Sabals, windmills and pindos are best for zone 8, because Trachy wagnerianus can burn during the summer heat unless planted in semi shade. Washingtonias survive if 2 winters are mild after planting, but look bad for a while. None of the above palms pull a spear yet. The absolute winners: Sabal palms! Probably Jubutias too. Windmills would too, but they burn during summers. Pindos can get damaged sometimes under 15F. Grow Sabals! More cold is coming tonight and the coming Tuesday, probably down to 26F, which is not too big of a problem here.

Your are right about the summer of '88. I vividly remember it as being very hot on the East coast as well. Actually, I was in Miami for two weeks that summer and it was running into the mid and upper 90's on a daily basis without rain--very unusual for Miami. This summer has been about normal. We had a run a week of mid 90's and humid recently but now it's settled back into mid-upper 80's. June was very thunderstormy and wet and July rainfall is extreme--either nothing for weeks or flood warnings. Seems more dramatic and less run of the mill daily thunderstorm activity. Who knows. Weather seems to be getting more unpredictable and chaotic. August is normally very wet and humid but in recent years its been more a drought month. September and October when everyone is back to work or school is usually the best weather of the year but a recent October saw record flooding rains.

Well, after a rather harrowing night, the last half of today turned out to be amazingly beautiful. Perfect weather to be outdoors, and for all the clean up. That said, I'm sure most people were not exactly having 'fun' today though. It seems like the absolute worst of this storm and its damage occurred from about Cape May, NJ, south along the coast to Va Beach, and inland to the big cities west of those points. The Damage seems to be less severe the farther north you go from NC/VA. For us here in the DC area, well, I have to say I was 'surprised' at this storm. The damage left behind was just about as bad as Isabel in 2003, maybe slightly less. From about 30 miles west of DC, to the coast the damage is what is being called 'major'. The most common are trees being blown on homes and going through them and crushing cars. The sheer number of trees down around just the DC Metro is staggering. Probably in the thousands. Lots of roads / streets were blocked and many still are. No real structural damage to most buildings from winds alone, other than a couple buildings having roofs partially peeled back / loss of shingles / some siding / gutters ripped off. Some minor to moderate flooding from storm surge along tidal waters which capped out at about 3-4 feet. The far worst of the flooding came from the massive rains. Ranging from 3-4 inches 30 miles west of DC, to 5-8" right in the city, to 10-12" 30 miles east and much more the farther south/ east you go from here. Lots of river and creek flooding causing road overwashes. My rain gauge maxes out at 5", and was full by 1:30 am. I'm guessing we got 1-2" more than that here. Reports of 4-8" in the immediate metro area were commonplace. Over all, it was probably 'worse than expected' in our area. The absolute worst of it came in the period from midnight to about 5am, when we were having sustained winds of 40-50+ and gusts 55-75mph. The worst part was pretty much like a 6 hour long severe thunderstorm. It would come in waves. Backing off to 40MPH or so for a few minutes, then big huge gusts around 55+, then every 7-10 minutes or so we would get a period of several minutes where the sustained winds were like a gust that just would not stop, and then an even higher gust on top of that, topping out around 70+. The wind reports all around our region were pretty consistent, with the highest gusts just west topping out around 55in places 30 miles west, to 65-70 inside the beltway, and 75-80 30 miles east and south along the Chesapeake Bay. about 40 miles west of D.C., almost no damage to speak of. Just some heavy rains at times, and gusty winds of 35+, but nothing very bad. It was a very sharp cutoff line between damage and almost nothing. The thing that made this storm worse, was its size, and slow movement. Had this been a quick event, we probably would not have seen nearly the damage. But, because this event was very protracted and lasted for 20 hours, most certainly lead to more damage. Isabel in 2003 was in and out fairly quickly. She was here less than 6 hours at her worst. The other difference, with respect to storm surge anyway was that it was less here because the storm passed to our east this time, in stead of to our west. This was a east, northeast, north, and northwest wind event here, which helped to push water more OUT , than in on top of the storm surge itself. Partners mother in Smithfield VA had a pretty bad night, as I suspect most did in SE Virginia and Eastern NC where the damage reports are much worse. No power since 6AM Saturday morning. They lost two large trees in their yard, but fortunately both missed the house. Their neighorhood is literally littered with trees down, and quite a few homes damaged by them. The pictures coming out of Va Beach, and the NC beaches are by far and away the most incredible. Even along the MD/ Delaware beaches there is quite a bit of damage. Tornadoes caused damage in both Lewes and Rehoboth Beach, DE. As for my yard, well, just 1 large tree limb from someone elses tree is in it, and most things that were not either VERY HEAVY and/ or tied down , did blow over. It looked like a war zone, but fortunately nothing was really damaged except for a clay pot with my rosemary bush in it. The palms, well, 2 got knocked over, but the big 8 foot pigmy date came through it like a champ. I tied it down with rope and rebar and it went no where. Ill post some photos in a bit. I hope everyone made it through OK with no significant losses / damage!

For most of zone 7 the growing season ends around the 1st of november to the 15 of november. Good thing about living along the coast is frost comes pretty late in the fall because the sea temperatures are still fairly warm from the summer The northeast and mid atlantic should watch out on friday morning though, because many areas will be getting a hard frost, that includes NYC, philly, and maybe DC, (as well as all the coastal areas which are the few areas that havent gotten a frost yeton the eastern seabord). Also those spike plants are very close relatives to ti plants. Spike plants are also known as Cabbage trees and can grow really large (and look quite tropical too). They are cold tolerant to 10F making them zone 8 plants, but Ive seen a some survive zone 7 winters in pots. I saw someone near me planted them in the ground and they survived three winters with no protection at all and were in very exposed areas. They got to be almost 4 feet tall, and if they were protected that one cold night, they would probably still be alive today. Good luck.