first... COLD kills ... the fact that it was raining.. very simply ... indicates that it wasnt a killing cold ... short of physical damage, of course ... better phrasing ... to the comment above.. is that ice can kill a bud that has become ACTIVE in spring ... again.. its a cold issue.. consistent with my usual comment.. dormant is dormant... temps a dormant plant can deal with are not the same as temps an active plant can handle ... so once it breaks dormancy ... in spring.. and is hit with COLD ... regardless of the form.. ice.. frost ... just temp .... buds can suffer ... especially the foo foo flower buds ... an otherwise healthy tree can rebud if this happens .... but most will not rebud for flower ..... some years.. i simply dont get a good flower show here in MI ... but rarely does a tree die ,... find something else to worry about .. tis the season .. lol ... flower shows vary.. year to year... based on conditions way beyond your control ... so why worry ... ma nature is humorless .. and flies around on a broom .... lol .. nothing is negotiable .... ken

Michelle, It is 3:35 p.m. and I am watching The Weather Channel and it sounds like Arkansas is really getting it already and conditions are supposed to worsen, so I guess the Fort Smith forecasters may "ignore" ya'll even more if you're not having the ice too. Yes, we can hope we're wrong, but "in my bones" I feel like it is going to be a bad one. I can tell by the number of birds coming to feed, and we have huge numbers today. I just refilled the feeders and put out deer corn an hour ago, and the birds are having a big old pre-storm feeding frenzy right now. Randy and I both use the Weather Underground a lot and I love their forecasts. If you've never used it, you can access it via www.wunderground.com. Randy, I agree about the internet accuracy, but I have to say that our local TV forecast (Channel 12, KXII, the local CBS affiliate) has improved a lot since Steve LaNore became their chief meterologist. Still, I take it with a grain of salt and merge together their forecast, various online sources, the NWS and my own "intuition" to arrive at my own idea about what I think "will" or "might" happen. I bet the Eskies had fun. If it snows, and they get to go out and play in it, I hope you'll take a photo of them to share with us. Ada, Uh-oh. That's not good news. Y'all be careful. I think the perennials will be OK as long as their roots weren't bone dry. If they were bone-dry, you might have some root death. After all my bragging about what a fine job our local electric co-op does keeping the power up, I saw we're now forecast to get about 1/2 inch of ice here. Well, if that happens, the trees won't even have to bring down the poles and power lines, because the ice on the power lines will bring everything down all by itself. Oh, I dread the power being out. Our house is all-electric, so if we lose power, we're gonna be cold. Moni, I'm glad you're hubby is going to be able to make it home safely before the icing gets worse and the roads are even more dangerous. We went out and did all our errands early. Now we're just waiting for the fire pagers to go off, because as soon as the temps hit 32, the accidents start popping up on the Interstate like dandelions pop up in our pastures in spring. I don't really understand the sudden ice storm trend the last 5 or 6 years. Our first few years here, we had some gorgeous snowstorms and that was so much fun for someone like me who grew up in snow-deprived Fort Worth. These last few years, though, it is all ice and no snow. I'd rather have snow. Well, if I had a choice, I'd rather have 6" of rain and nothing frozen, but that's not gonna happen! Dawn

George, Like Carol, I heard that Cherokee County was extremely hard hit. I was trying to type a response to you last night and our internet service went down in the middle of the heaviest sleet of the day, which fell here after 7 p.m. Miraculously, our internet service is back up early this morning, and so am I. I feel really bad for Jerreth, having to hold down the fort alone in this mess, but you know that she is a very strong, capable and self-reliant woman and she will be fine. (Would you expect any less from your better half?) You, on the other hand, may be in the doghouse when you arrive home from warm and sunny Mexico. LOL (You probably shouldn't say much to her about this trip, except to talk about how very, very, very hard you worked down there while she was home in "a winter wonderland". It wouldn't hurt to mention you were thoroughly miserable about being away from her at such a time and that you wished you'd been home to help her deal with the weather situation.) All I can say is that the timing of this trip worked out well for you, if not for her. If there is anything that we can do from here to try to make contact with your family or to find out further news for you, let us know. You know that we are your gardening family and we'd help in any way we could. I am praying that Jerreth, the home place and all the family are fine in your absence and that you remain safe and well also. I don't think Ilene has been online since the ice started falling, so I suspect either her internet service is down or the power is out. I hope she and the rest of our gardening family are doing OK in this horrid ice storm. George, this is the absolute worst ice storm I've ever seen. I know that EMSA responded to almost 500 calls for medical assistance, and hundreds of those were for people who slipped and fell on the ice. In many places, freezing rain and snow fell first and made the outdoors a vast skating rink. Luckily, many of us then received either sleet or snow on top of the ice, which actually helped by covering the slick surfaces with something that gives feet and tires a little traction. DS was at work at D-FW Airport last night and was responding to a report of a vehicle hitting a pedestrian when his ambulance slid and crashed on a bridge. Then, a city of Grapevine Fire Truck responding to the same accident crashed on the same bridge and then 2 more vehicles crashed. Thankfully, no one was hurt, except (I presume) the pedestrian hit by the original vehicle. I am just glad DS was not driving the ambulance, because the airport is never happy when someone wrecks a vehicle that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Of course, when you have to work in the worst of weather, things like that happen. Busy1, We have containers of water stored, although now that the stuff has stopped falling from the sky, I am hopeful we will not lose power. Last night, I thought it was about to go out, but it didn't. I feel lucky to still have power when so many others do not. I think it is marketing genius to raise green tomatoes for the "frying" market. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that people specifically request them all summer long. That could be a very special market niche that is great for business. I hope y'all come through the storm OK too. Our roads are a disaster here, and we won't get over freezing until this afternoon, but no one, to my knowledge, has lost power in our county and all the accidents have been minor ones of the sliding off the road type, so we're truly blessed here in Love County. And, only 0.07" of stuff fell here, officially, so it really wasn't enough to break the drought, but then I didn't think it would be. Stay safe and warm everyone. I'm gonna go start a "check in" thread so we can keep track of everyone and know that they are OK. Dawn

Most of y'all stand a better chance of getting something frozen than we do, but even we have an Ice Storm Warning as far south as we are. I was expecting it. From the moment they first said we'd stay above freezing (this morning our forecast low for tonight still was showing 37 degrees) and would have only rain, I said "Uh oh. We're gonna freeze and get freezing rain and sleet." Lately it seems like we get the opposite of what the models show for us, so I was prepared for ice. : ) After our temperature dropped to 34 or 35 degrees, they then lowered our forecast low to 35. Currently we are sitting here at 31 degrees (and I haven't even looked to see if they lowered the forecast low again to keep up with the plunging actual air temps) and a light rain/fog/mist that is not yet freezing. It is possible we have a warm layer of air aloft a few thousand feet that is preventing our moisture from falling frozen. I'm not complaining if that is the case. I've been following the radar, storm chaser reports and Live Wire reports and all I can say is that I hope none of y'all have to travel over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house the next couple of days because it is likely to be icy or snowy or both. If December's weather is an indication of what winter will bring, then I think January and February are likely to be horrible. Carol, Even my thermometers cannot agree with one another and they all are mounted outdoors in the shade (were the sun shining) at the same height. Two show 32 degrees and three show 31 degrees. They are located at different locations on our property though. Burneyville has remained about 1 degree colder than us most of the day, but they are further north. Tim is in Dallas but not planning to stay there tonight unless our weather here deteriorates quickly. Dawn