While these temperatures are not normal they are not rare for Cincinnati either

You guys need to toughen up! I'm in the -22 F range and loving it! lol

Very cold, frigid temperatures here and the wind gusts are just awful!

My temps for the next ten days days? ll below 0 except for a few. There goes my idea of planting any citrus or figs in the ground..lol My mom says she use to get winter like this all the time. Thank God that was her 'time'. I can't wait for summer in January!

I'm with Jarasico, I am off all week too and I had planned on getting a sun tan. Maybe I'll power up one of my unused 1000 watt power grow light that throws off drastic heat and sit under that.

hobbyartisan, thanks for that. It helps keep things in perspective but also helps keep me in the South! Brrrrr!

It’s a dry cold John. Haha!

Hobby how is your Green House holding up? Even my temperatures are warm compared to yours and for me it's very difficult to keep the inside of my greenhouse warm which can be very frustrating. All I keep thinking about is the cost to keep it running and if it's worth it but then I keep coming back to the fact that to me it is worth it!!

Oh my...those temps make my 28 seem toasty ;).

I'm not very old but, I can't say I've seen a Winter with this much snow and soo cold in about 5-6 years. The last few Winters have been very mild. I totally understand hobby... I'm sitting at 0F and with the wind chill, it feels like -22F It's suppose to be like this for a week easily. At least we're getting a good amount of sun when it's not snowing.

I picked up some extra tarps to help cover trees. I have been watching as the forecast changes from day-to-day. I was optimistic it wouldn't be so bad but now they have a seven hour period with temps at or below 27 on Monday night. Winds will be 8-10 mph so I'll have to take the usual measures to weight the tarps down. It's this time of year I also wonder if it's really worth the cost and effort to try to grow trees that are borderline tolerant for my region. Each year, I have said YES! I also have quit protecting the bigger trees that are less sensitive now. Kumquats, satsumas, the calamondin, and Ponderosa lemons loose leaves and some branch tips but nothing a few weeks of spring growth can't replace. I hope to cover the two more sensitive trees I have, the tangerine and blood orange. I'll also plan to cover the meyer which is small, and a new satsuma I planted recently.

I am in much the same position on the 8b/9a line in Louisiana, I will be covering all the smaller plants (those less than about 7 ft tall and 4 ft wide, but will likely not be covering the 10-15 ft tall 10-20 ft wide Satsumas this go round, I only do that when the forecast calls for temperatures below 21-22 degrees, right not our forecast is calling for 25 for Monday night, but also staying below freezing for 12-18 hours at a time during the first part of next week. (ok that may change, I just looked at the latest forecast update, they are now calling for 23F on New Years eve night, a high of 34 on New Years day, and 22 on New Years night)

p.s. now a couple of hours later the forecast low for the 1st is down to 19F, so it looks like the big Satsumas are going to get covered after all.

Hi Mike, nice to hear from you! Wow so it's -47 F now!!! So it's getting a bit ridiculous now lol.

I don't have a greenhouse, I have a grow room. It is doing well although in these temps the door freezes shut so we have to use a heat gun to get inside to water! It stays about 64 F inside so the trees are happy. Lots of flowering and active growing right now.

Your greenhouse heaters must be going overtime- I hope it warms up soon for all of us!

Hobby, I can imagine what the temperatures feel like in zone 2 . I used to live in Churchill, Manitoba at one point of my life because of my work and the winter is very brutal up there. Keep warm everyone!

Very cold here in NJ (Zone 7); and it's a prolonged event, which makes it a bit unusual as temps remain well below normal and below freezing (even without any snow cover). Don't feel quite so sheltered Florida, I see forecasts calling for lows into the 30's in TAMPA! This reminds me of those those polar vortices of a few years ago with the weather moving from northeast to southeast and not a more zonal, west to east pattern. And as we freeze in the East, there is building drought in the West; more Pacific air would bring them more rain and snow and us, less crazy COLD!

Thanks sunshine, now Churchill gets REALLY cold so you know what it's all about lol. Yes the cold snap seems far ranging... perfect for staying inside and keeping toasty. We have a houseguest right now and he is blown away by the citrus flowers blooming in my grow room, the scent at least transports me mentally to summer!

Hobby, my God that cold?@!!@ I have had ice on the inside hallway door and I find that strange. I can't believe that cold! How the heck do you start your car in the mornings? Does it start? I can imagine if you did have a greenhouse, I think it would kill your financially. Thank God you can keep them inside. Do you have any recent pics? I miss them. Good to see you around here too.

Jurassic you are right!! I have been saying for years that the zonal flow is no longer here. It has been doing the sea saw thingy for years and I have yet to get a normal summer or winter. For years my summers have been getting cooler with the dip of the jet stream in the East while it rises in the west giving heat waves..Now it winter, if it dips in the east, which it its, we are screwed..

You know what, I'd like your thoughts on this and have you heard anything g about it? I remember a weather man blaming the extreme dips in the jet stream and the lack of the zonal flow on believe this or not, the HEAVY air pollution on China, os all places, That the pollution there rises so high, that it blocks the jet stream causing it to buckle like the end of a whip causing it to ripple clear across the world. The jet stream gets stuck like in a traffic jam, can not move from straight west to east, and we pay the price with this constant lack of zonal flow. Last summer as in most it is suppose to retreat into Canada but never did, Therefore we had backing in the atmosphere which gave us an usual colder summer. It was in the 30's at night here and in New Hampshire, unheard of. In the fall when it finally rises over here and dipped in the west, they froze while we got a hotter than norm fall. It is hardly zonal anymore. What do you think?

Ike, ouch! You to? Crazy

Mike

Here on the 8b/9a line in western Louisiana I spent most of this afternoon (mostly) covering my mature Satuma trees, the largest one is about about 15 ft tall and 15-20 ft wide (oblong) . That one took a 20x20 ft tarp with 3 12x20 ft tarps zip tied on 3 sides making it roughly 44 x 32, the hardest part was kiting the tarp over the top of the tree. There are still a few shoots at the top of the tree sticking out through gaps in the zip tied seams by a couple of feet. Each of the large trees also has a 250 watt heat lamp under the canopy, and my smaller trees will all be covered with a string of C7 Christmas lights on each. Every time I check the forecast it keeps looking worse, either being colder, or being below freezing for longer, or both. The latest update calls for lows in the teens and twenties for 5 nights starting Sunday night, with lows of 17 Monday and 18 Tuesday with daytime highs barely getting above freezing from midnight Sunday night until Wednesday afternoon. (it rarely stays below freezing more than 12 hours here, maybe 24 hours once every 3 or 4 years, 48 hours in a row below freezing is more like a once per decade event..

Wow, even in zone 8/9 you guys are worried and protecting your trees! This year's cold is one of the nasty and long ones that we are seeing in a long time.

Hobby - -47!!!! OMG I think I’d die! You would not get me outside the house! Ike and those of you with in ground trees - I hope this wave passes quickly and with minimal damage.

Well I have them covered, took this picture a couple of hours ago, the small (about 7 ft tall) uncovered one on the right is my Armstrong Early Satsuma (it has since been covered), I still have a few gaps to fill in with small tarps, but at least I am 90% of the way there, dodging rain showers to get it finished here. (to give scale those blue tarps in the foreground are 12x20's and the brown one is 20x20)

Ike, what are your lowest nighttime temperatures going to be?

Current forecast is low of 17F Monday night and 18F Tuesday night, with high on Monday of 34, and lows in the 20's through Saturday of course forecast and actual temperatures can be two different things..

p.s. just saw the local news headline that this will be the worst cold weather since January of 2010

Ike fingers crossed that your weather turns out much better for you . It so frustrating when we have no control of what's thrown at us but we have a choice on the outcome you made a terrific attempt on trying to save your Satsuma great job!!!! Good luck.

Brian

Ike, hope all of your hard work saves your trees. Unfortunately, I don't have my satsumas covered....except a little one. I covered the little satsuma, a big calamondin, a medium kumquat, a small meyer, and a pretty tall blood orange...oh and the tangerine.

Here are some photos

Getting ready to add the tarp over the tangerine

Covered tangerine in the background and covered satsuma in the foreground

Prepping the blood orange

Finished blood orange in the background, calamondin on the left with half of it sticking out above the tarp and the meyer in the middle.

Seed-grown Ponderosa lemon that I just piled leaves around the trunk. It should come back if the top gets killed.

I was thinking today how much it helps to know just how cold it's expected to be quite a few days in advance of such an event. Sending out a huge THANKS to all the meteorologists!

Ike and John, you have done very good work to protect your trees!

John great job . All that work will pay off.

Brian

John, looking good with all the insulation, are you also adding a heat source? I have strings of C7 Christmas lights (25 x7 watt = 175W per tree) on the smaller Satsuma, Meyers, and Cara Cara trees, and 250 watt infra-red heat lamps under the 3 larger Satsuma trees. I pick us some more 100 mini bulb lights from Dollar General today (just over 200 watts per string according to the box) as they were on clearance for $1.50 per box, and may add a couple of strings of them to the larger Satsumas (just tossing in through an opening in the tarps.

Haha Laura! We have been going about our regular business for the most part, exposed fingers don't feel too great but in a warm down coat and hat we are managing pretty well.

Great job tarping John, I hope all your trees make it- to you and all! You guys are like us crazy container people for once, going to extreme lengths to save the trees! Now you know how we suffer ;).

Perhaps, but it is worth it, here is a picture of my second largest Satsuma tree taken last week. The largest one had a light crop this year with only a few dozen Satsumas.

photo will not attach now, will try to edit and post in a bit

Arctic COLD but dry, dry, dry so that may help with some of my marginals (Sabals, windmill palm, some the marginal Yuccas). I really prefer snowier, weather more than this frigid crap. 1/2 inch of arid powder fell last night, not exactly an insulating snow. Tomorrow, may see record cold at 5.0 F, and the beat goes on.

hobby, LOL!, yes, we all have our moments....

Ike, I have gathered all of my votive candles and may burn them under the tarps. It's only a small heat source but I hope with the added insulating boards it will be enough to keep things from getting too cold under there...a photo of the candles in the blood orange enclosure..

A quick google search suggests that a typical candle puts out from 40 to 80 watts of heat, so 3 to 6 of your candles should put out the same amount of heat as my 250 watt heat lamp.

5 more single digit +/_ nights to go.

Steve, ugh, that's no fun! I have one more night ahead with temps going down to the upper twenties....not bad at all considering what some of our northern neighbors are dealing with. My coldest night went down to 24. Regarding the candles I photographed under the tarped blood orange tree, as you can see from the photo, both candles had already seen lots of burn time before I sent them outside to do service keeping my enclosure warmer. I lit them Monday night around midnight and they were still burning when I checked them last night (Tuesday night). They burned Monday night, all day Tuesday, and were still burning around midnight Tuesday night. Now my blood orange tree smells very much like a chocolate-flavored candle :>) I guess I may have to wait until spring to see if the tree came through ok. Here is hoping this cold snap wasn't one of many we will get this winter!

We barely hit a low of 19 for about an hour here, which is a lot better than the 17 that we had forecast so if covering and heat lamps only added a degree or two of warmth it should be enough for the Satsuma's we will have to see on the Meyers and Cara Cara. Probably going to wait until Friday or Saturday to uncover everything.

We dropped down to -5 for several hours 35 hours ago.

Steve

Hi guys, the cold is in full force here, the overnight temperatures are -24C, feeling like -34C, I woke up to 13C in my living room this morning ( the bedrooms are heated at night), I saw these beautiful pictures mother nature created on the living room windows overnight :))

Beautiful pictures indeed, sunshine! Hope you are staying warm and cozy during this winter chill many of us are having. We woke up to -20 this morning. I was all bundled up when I went up to the barn to feed and water the animals early this morning and the air was still and cold which made it hard to breath. We have a warm up in the forecast for this coming week, possibly 30's. Come on spring...

Sunshine I calculated your temperature at -29.2 F That is 19.2 F colder than the coldest over over a general 10 year. span. Is this a keyboard error or are things really that bad.

0F at Steve's

Sunshine....wow, that's cold! Thanks for sharing the really "COOL" pictures.

I uncovered my trees yesterday. It will probably be spring before we all will know for sure how our trees pulled through. I do have a few young lemon trees that I didn't cover that look pretty rough but they should come back from roots since they are seed-grown.

Just heard this number on my TV, the Weather channel.

The numbers are right, we are in EXTREME cold alert and cold warnings, have been there for about two weeks. Dangerously cold now and starting next week all the way towards the end of January comes the BIG THAW .

Sunshine those windows are beautiful I really love the last pic . Sunshine ridiculous this cold and we all seem to be suffering with it and your right Jinnylea sometimes it's very hard to catch your breath in it . The temperature is going down to -26 C tonight and -28 C tomorrow night the wind chill has been around - 39 C all day . Big warm up next week with a ton of snow .

Brian

Brian That is one degree short of Celsius dates Fahrenheit in the wind chill.

Hopefully my warm thoughts of all of you keep you from being too cold. It's crazy. Here too. -35 wind chill by tomorrow night. Tonight -25. Florida was 30 at my friends house and my other friends house in Alaska it was 50 degrees.
Brian. Love the ideas about facing the heat towards the doors. We got 16 inches of blizzard snow and extreme flooding and destruction here near the coast.
Sunshine so beautiful. Thank you for sharing. It's crazy when ice develops inside on windows like it did in my hallway !

I uncovered my large Satsumas today, all seem ok, with only slight leaf loss on some of the more exposed branches. We have a forecast low of 31 tonight so I am waiting until tomorrow to uncover the more cold sensitive citrus.

Stay warm and safe everyone, just couple of days left till the milder temps arrive!

Mikey buddy glad that you and your parents are safe and with power. I've seen the destruction on the news in Massachusetts and the Canadian maritimes unthinkable. Stay warm my friend.

Steve it's incredibly cold minus - 40 C all day to tomorrow with the wind . With the wind chill we were colder then the North Pole today nothing to brag about .

Brian

New Zealand lemonade in ground outside behind glass.

Amazing Steve looks great !!! Great job getting it through this record breaking chill .

Brian