Author: admincatsg

Cold night

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Yesterday was cold, and today was warmer, but not by much. We did manage to get into the mid 40’s, but it was a cold time walking the dog today.

This evening, it’s now 10:45PM, and we have already dropped down to 27 degrees. The forecast is for 25 tonight. We may well get that or a bit lower. At this point anything is possible.

Once we make it through tonight’s cold we should warm up. Albeit not greatly, but enough to make the days in the 50’s and the nights above freezing. That should be an improvement to today’s and yesterday’s cold. Still not great for the plants, but it is winter so we have to expect it.

Its cold

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At 8:45 AM my weather station says its 31 degrees outside. The weather station says its 34 with a wind chill of 22. I believe it. We have only a small chance of any precipitation, and at this temperature it might end up freezing on contact. So we have our cold, and its expected to stick around all day, with these below freezing nights for the next couple of days. The apple trees should be happy.

One thing of interest, is Corpus Christi, on the coast, is in a winter warning. That is unusual. Since it is on the coast, the warm water tends to moderate the temperature, so it doesn’t usually get that cold in that area.

I’ll keep updating.

5:15PM UPDATE

I wanted to take my dog out at 4pm for a walk so I went out the back to check the weather. Well, at that time we were getting a fix mix of what I am guessing is sleet. It pings when it hits hard surfaces. It’s been light, no real accumulations, but its still coming down, and the temperature has recently dropped. It hasn’t dropped much, its now 29 degrees (5:15 pm). The highest we reached was 32, but we are still due to get colder, 27 tonight. And considering what we’ve seen today, I bet we do get colder. Oh, and the dog has not been tickled to go outside at all. Just reporting.

11:59PM UPDATE

We’ve have cold, now at almost midnight we are just climbing over 32, but its just below 33 degrees outside. We had what might be called some freezing rain, or maybe not. Cars outside have a sheet of ice on them, but it could just be the light (very light) precipitation and the cold temperatures. But it has been cold. There is just not other way to describe it. It has been cold all day long. And before morning we should get down to 27. The good news is tomorrow should be a balmy 47. We can hope.

Cold front

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The forecast has been warning about a cold front for a number of days now. Well, today we hit a high of 81 here at the house. Less than an hour ago it was 79, now its 68. I’ve been watching the temperature since we moved plants to the center of the back patio but I wanted to cover them at 75. Well, I watched the temp and was able to cover them when I wanted to. I really wanted to co er them before it got too cold.

Tonight’s forecast is all of 29, and I bet we hit it. It might be early in the morning when we hit that, but it means we will be in for a cold night. And on top of that we expect wind, so it will be cold outside.Tomorrow, Thursday we expect a high of 39, and a low of 25. So it will be cold tomorrow no matter how you look at it. Friday is expected to get up to 49 with a low of 26.

Outside right now the clouds are coming in and the air is still, but the temperature keeps slowly dropping. I guess the only good news is here we have no forecast of precipitation. But the Austin area is under a winter weather advisory.

Basically it says we should expect precipitation of minor sleet/snow, possibly ice but probably not measurable. But they are also saying wind gusts to 35 mph. And we’re expecting it to begin around 3AM Thursday and go until 6AM Friday. But exactly where this will hit remains to be seen.

Indecisive weather

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Well, yesterday (Saturday) we had wind. Lots of wind. Blow things down wind. And it was cold. Not freezing cold, but cold-in the 40’s cold. Walking my dog it was cold and windy. I know I get cold, but I even wore a down jacket to stay warm during the walk.

Today was actually kind of nice. It was much warmer, mid 60’s warmer. It wasn’t bad walking my dog. But now, at about 10 pm it is already down to 35 degrees. So even though we had a nice day, its time to cover plants for this evening.

The end of last week, on Friday we did some gardening work. We got both the new blueberries in, and got the Seedless Thompson grape planted too. We also dumped a few dead plants, think peppers I was tired of, and began figuring out what we want to do for next year. I’ve had to use some of the soil that we put into the raised beds to plant the new berries and grape. I still have some strawberries and a peony to plant sometime soon. The issue is this weather.

But to give an idea of what we are dealing with, Tuesday is supposed to be 74 and 54, yet Wednesday we will be 76 and 32. Then Thursday its 40 and 26, Friday is 42 and 24, and next Saturday its 36 and 28. So we have more cold coming in. Anything that I was thinking of direct sowing is out of the question. I can start seeds inside, its warm enough inside. But outside we are due for cold.

One issue I do have to be aware of is is last Friday to be exact, I had to call 911. Some how after having a fire in my fireplace for almost 4 hours my flue closed. The good news is that the fire alarms worked and began screaming. I opened the back and front door, grabbed Linus my dog, put my purse by the front door, put on a jacket, and walked out with my cell phone and called 911 – not quite in that order. I am happy to say fire and EMS showed up quickly. Cute firemen I do have to say. But now I’m a bit leery of using my fireplace. I will, but I’ve taken the damper pull off just in case that was part of the problem.

But with all the warm weather we have, we are due for more cold on the way.

Rain?

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I’m not sure I would actually call it rain. Its been more of a mist. Yesterday was cold and humid, think 38 degrees and 99% humidity. I know my weather station never showed the temperature get to 40 during the day.

It slowly warmed up over night. Now, at 7:45pm it’s 58 degrees and still 99% humidity. But it is not rain, nothing is really coming down. My weather station shows we’ve had measurable precipitation of 0.16 inches for the day. That’s why I say its more mist than actual rain coming down. Its left things wet, but nothing coming down from the sky, an umbrella would not have been helpful today.

Tomorrow, Sunday we should warm up to 61, and be 50’s to 60’s next week. Monday night, might get down to almost freezing, we’ll see.

I have lost a few annual. The petunias and the geraniums are pretty much frozen. But those plants I put up y the house are doing well – the lemongrass, lemon tree, etc.

Its freezing

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Really, its 9:30 AM and its 32 outside. And we’ve had a fatality. We had covered the lemon, but the cover is off. All the leaves are shriveled and I think its dead. I”ll leave it uncovered, covering it won’t do much good now. Maybe if there’s any life it will come back, but I’m think the lemon is gone.

More cold

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Yesterday we had warm 70+ degree weather. Tonight we have a cold front. Its now 11pm and 32 degrees already. We are forecast for a low of 26, and we might just make that. And yet, tomorrow we should be a high of 52 and low is in the 40’s. And possibly Saturday we may actually get rain. Which mean any plants that are covered need to be uncovered and be allowed to get some rain. Next week we should be back into the 60’s during the day. With any luck we might even get rain a few days next week.

Let’s hope for good weather, even if somewhat warmish weather for January. December was warm, about 11 degrees above normal warm. We’ll see how warm January ends up being.

Its COLD!

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Its 9am and it is 26 degrees outside. How’s that for cold in Central Texas. My weather station is bouncing between 26 and 27 degrees outside. Its with a light breeze, which makes it feel dang cold. My dog didn’t really want to run out for his morning potty break. He did go out, but it is cold out there.

UPDATE: Its now 11pm, 14 hours after the previous post. We had an earlier high of mid 40’s, I think it was like 44-45 today. But now at this time we are back down to 27 degrees outside. Last night I lost some plants, not sure how many yet. It was late when I went out and covered some additional plants. Today I left everything covered, but I noticed that a few plants let uncovered look pretty bad. Mainly its the geraniums that look bad. A couple of small basil plants, I had quite a few volunteers this year, also look pretty dead. Tomorrow, Monday should be warmer, in the mid 50’s, but the night should still get down to freezing.

Welcome to a cold front in Central Texas.

Welcome 2022

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They warned us a cold front is coming. Well, I would have to say it is here. I’ve spent the day watching the Rose Parade, then football.

But the day’s weather is a whole other story. Earlier today it was in the mid 70’s. It was so warm I had to change to a lighter top in order to comfortably walk my dog. It must have been about 77.

Now it is about 11:30 PM and it is cold outside. My outside thermometer registers a cool 36 degrees. They are saying we should hit a low of 26 tonight, 25 tomorrow, and Monday night will be a balmy 34. Its short lived, just these few day, but a cold few days. Let’s hope we did a good job covering all the plants.

Oh, and the wind is less than 1 mph. Its seems to be cold but still. At least at the moment. That’s subject to change I’m sure.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year’s Eve

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2022, here we come. Today is the last day of 2021. The weather here has been warm days, and humid nights. Its been so humid the dew is condensing and dripping off my roof. The deck covering drips each night. It leaves a good inch of water in the bottom of a barrel. And it is from nothing but the humidity. For reference its been evenings of low 70-high 60’s, with humidity of 99%. Its not cold enough to rain, so all that moisture just sits in the air. Even now, its Friday evening, New Year’s Eve, and its 71 degrees and 93% humidity outside. That’s humid and warm, but not cool enough to actually rain.

And so have been our evenings.

But tomorrow, Saturday January 1 2022 we are due for a cool down. Tomorrow during the day we should hit a balmy 79, almost 80 degrees. Yet our low for tomorrow is forecast to be 28 degrees. Sunday our high is forecast for 48, with a low of 26. Monday is 52 and 35. By Tuesday we should be back to 60-70 daytime highs and lows in the 40’s.

In preparation for this cold the raised beds have been covered with Plankets, those green plant cover thin blankets. The citrus tree in the ground is small enough to be covered with an upside down pot. We’ve put a large rock on the pot to keep it in place just in case wind kicks up. I expect some plants will die in the cold, and I’m okay with that. I’ve still been harvesting jalapeno peppers, even today. Also, my bell pepper plants will probably die, that I’m really okay with that. Even the tomato will probably die, but again, its not a bad thing. These plants dying will allow me to pull them with a clean conscious.

So we shall see what the weather brings for 2022.

Happy New Year.