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The cold cometh

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I woke up this morning to a high of 36 degrees. I can’t tell you how cold it was last night, but it was cold. Today, we hit a brief, and I don’t think it was even an hour, of 43 degrees. But it has already begun its slow drop in temperature. Tonight is forecast to be 26, that is a definite hard freeze. And I believe it will hit that.

I had the joy of walking my dog outside, and it was barely over 40, with a good breeze, probably a 4-5 mph. It could have been a bit stronger, but it has been blowing that strong. To say it was cold is something of an understatement. Here in this area of Texas this is a cold front that is a bit on the late side. We are all hoping this is the last hurrah of winter, and it will leave and give us a chance at spring.

One crazy thing is that by Sunday we should be up to 67, but next week it will be high 70’s almost 80 degrees. How is that for crazy weather!

But for now it is cold and windy. With more cold cold on its way tonight.

UPDATE: I got up late last night to find the weather station said we were at 27 degrees. Cold night as they forecasted.

Third Winter

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There is a meme going around from Texas Storm Chasers (https://texasstormchasers.com/12-seasons-of-texas-second-summer/). According to this, there are 12 seasons in Texas. In order they are:’

  • Winter
  • Fool’s Spring
  • Second Winter
  • Spring of Deception
  • Third Winter
  • The Pollening
  • Actual Spring
  • Summer
  • Hell’s Front Porch
  • False Fall
  • Second Summer
  • Actual Fall

That is a rather good description of what we are in now. I would guess we are in Third Winter. It is now 8:30pm, 44 degrees, and expected to drop to 33 tonight. And this Friday we are expecting to drop down to a low of 28, and they have even said possible snow showers. How’s that for a fun weather pattern? We shall see what happens

Welcome to central Texas weather.

UPDATE: The new forecast says Friday early morning (think 4AM) may be the warmest part of the day. By 4pm we expect to be around 35 degrees, with some possible sleet. That means Saturday morning might be a frigid 24 degrees, but warm up to mid 50’s. Then Sunday could be in the low 70’s. Its Texas folks.

Winter is not gone yet

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Yesterday, actually for the past 2 days we have had lovely warm, 80 degree weather. This morning it was all of about 45. And we’re going for a high of maybe 50. Welcome to spring time in central Texas.

To give you an idea of how strange this is, tomorrow night our low should be 33, tonight’s low if 39. Then later this week, Friday we are due to get down to 30, with a low of 32 next Saturday night.

Just for reference, the average last freeze date for this area is Feb. 23, and that was a couple of weeks ago. I’m sure some people are very frustrated, they probably put out transplants figuring freezing nights were behind us. SURPRISE!!

I’m sure some areas are worried about losing crops with this unexpected upcoming cold. And I can’t blame them.

I’ve also notice that the birds are eating seed like its cold. They went through an entire bird feeder since this morning, after leaving it alone for a couple of days. That is what the cold has done to our feathered friends.

UPDATE: its after 4pm, but we made it up to 53 degrees. But make no mistake, the breeze outside has it feeling colder.

Still cold

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Okay, its just plain cold. The cold front arrived, nothing spectacular in its arrival. But it has stuck around. Yesterday morning we started out above freezing, not by much but definitely above freezing, I think it was 35. Then it just did a slow slide to about 27 degrees. Then throughout the day it just waffled between 27 and 30 degrees, staying most of the day at about 29. I say about since it might be 29.2 then change to 29.7, then back down. Not a large variation, but a cloudy day. Today has been no better. It started below 32 and now at about 5:30 pm, we have made it to 32.7 degrees. I suppose you can say we are above freezing, but I think that might be splitting hairs. Our high today was supposed to be 33, so I guess you could say we got there. But its still cloudy.

And the forecast for tonight, 27.

Hopefully tomorrow we should reach out of freezing for a high of 40, and a low of 34. But tomorrow should still be cloudy. Saturday will be pretty might like tomorrow except we’ll add light rain. Not my favorite weather. I admit walking the dog in these conditions is not great. He starts walking, then tires of the cold quickly and wants me to carry him.

Hopefully by Sunday the daytime temperatures will climb to the 50’s, even if the night will be back to freezing. Monday both daytime and nighttime temperatures would be above freezing, even thought the nights will still be in the 30’s. But both Sunday and Monday should have some sun, that will be welcome.

Tuesday we will be into March, and with it hopefully better weather. Then we should have daytime temps in the 60’s with nights in the 40’s. Hopefully that will be so. Maybe we’ll get out of this winter weather and get into spring time. That would be nice.

Another cold front

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Today we have a love high of 85 degrees. Its was a warm day, no sweater needed. And yet tonight we should drop to 36 degrees. Here in Austin they are calling for a cold front over the next few days. Dallas, a bit north of us, is looking to get freezing rain. We don’t expect that here. Well, we are looking to drop down to 29 tomorrow, and dropping to 30 Thursday evening.

We are also looking at some rain possible tomorrow evening. It could start with showers around 4pm, and the temperatures will still be above freezing. But by 7pm, it may be down to freezing and turn to freezing rain. That is yet to be seen. But the precipitation shouldn’t last long, it should be over by 10pm.

Its possible Thursday early morning (think just after midnight) we could get more freezing rain. But my mid morning we should be back above freezing so any precipitation should revert back to liquid rain. Let’s hope they are right.

Cold front

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Once again we have strange weather. We have had a beautiful past few days. Even today we were a warm 70 degrees. I think I saw a short period of 72 today here at the house.

And yet, it is now almost 11PM and we have dropped to 34 degrees. We are expecting to drop to 30. So we will cut our temperature in half today. And tomorrow it will be cool. Tomorrow is only expected to be in the low 50, with a low down to 33.

But the weekend will be back up the 60’s and 70’s. Welcome to the wild weather of central Texas.

Nonetheless, I have made sure that plants are covered and or moved to a warmer spot. Hopefully I will not lose anymore plants. My pink lemon tree took a beating in the cold we had a couple of weeks ago. Even though the tree was covered, some of the ends of the branches were frozen and are now brown. I have cut back some of those branches and they do appear to be alive. So I have moved the pot close to the house, and covered it. With the burnt tips cut off it is easier to move and position in a safe place.

One other thing I am also trying, is I have started some seeds in coconut coir mix. I bought a set of 10 compressed blocks. These came with little containers that your put the compressed blocks in, add warm water, and let them rehydrate. The only thing is that where they do rehydrate, you still need to fluff up the coir. In order to make this easier on me, I have been putting the compressed coir into empty salad containers. Since the grocery store sells salad in these clear plastic type of tubs, with a lid to close, I think it will be a good place to start seeds. I put the blocks in, add water, fluff after they had absorbed water. Then if they are too wet, I can leave the lid off and let water evaporate, but I can put the lid on as necessary in order to keep in warmth, and humidity. Its worth a try.

Cold front again

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This has been an interesting weather day. This morning, 9AMish, it was about 56 degrees. Shortly around noon I heard noise outside. It turned out to be hail, even though it was in the low 40’s. The lowest I saw was 41 degrees today. Now, just after 6pm we are up to 45 degrees. Here at home we’ve registered just over 8mph wind. I will say it make taking a walk today cold. It was cold temperatures and a cold wind combined for just feeling freezing cold.

Tonight we should have the joy of getting down to just below 30, like 29 degrees. It looks like it will be a slow drop in temperature from here on down. Considering the clear skies and the cold wind I believe we will make it that cold.

I’ve already covered those plants I feel need to be covered.

I’ve also contacted someone that will be coming over tomorrow to check out my yard. Since I am having trouble getting items I may need, mainly items that are heavy. I will be talking to them about getting them to bring in mulch and getting in spread in areas I need it. I also am looking to see if they might be able to get and install pavers for the back area where I want chairs to go. Having their input to figure out edging in the back would be helpful too.

The problem with the edging is that I need water to drain. I’ve got to come up with something that will work. Hopefully they will have some ideas. I can hope.

Warmth

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Its now 8:45 PM and a lovely 51 degrees outside, with 50 percent humidity. Its made it up to 72 earlier today. For about the next week are expect to be blessed with lovely warm days, and not too cold nights. This weekend we might get one cool night, down to 33 degrees, but that might be it.

All the plants have been uncovered, water is hooked back up. I even took the time to sow some carrot and pea seeds. Hopefully with the weather we are having they will sprout. We shall see.

One thing I am seriously considering is some sort of cold frame. On the Facebook Central Texas Gardeners group some people have mentioned the success they are having with a cold frame over their bed, both in ground and raised beds. From what they are showing, some are home made, and some are purchased cold frames. Basically the idea is to cover the bed, but keep the covering from touching the plants. Think of an a frame over the bed. Some are more like a lean to, but again it is raised so that the cover does not touch the plants. Some of the people are saying that the cold frame keeps the beds considerable warmer.

This person says the temperatures got down to 18, and stayed below freezing for over 36 hours. By the time they made it out to check, the outside temperature was in the low 40’s. But inside the green house it was about 30 degrees warmer. And of course the soil temperature was just over 50 under the cold frame. The did add a set of Christmas lights to help keep the temperature up.

I really should seriously consider getting some sort of cover for my raised beds. Either I need to purchase something or consider making something. If it will help my gardening, and keep the raised beds warmer during the cold it might be something to try.

After the storm

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We’ve made it through the majority of the cold weather that came our way. I say the majority since the nights are still cold. Today we hit a high of 52 here at the house, but tonight is due to be 29. So we still have below freezing nights.

Today, in the warmth I took a walk around the yard, both front and back. I did this for a very specific reason. Since we had gotten rain, and freezing rain, and sleet, things that got wet from the rain had the opportunity to freeze. Since the sun has been out and the temperature has warmed, I looked around to see what areas still have ice. As you might expect, some areas of the roof still have patches of ice. That was pretty much expected and not something I will do anything about. They will eventually melt.

The areas I am looking at the most are areas around the yard that still have ice or left over sleet. Now the sleet pellets froze together so they almost look like snow, but they are frozen with a crust on top. I actually have areas on my driveway and front walk path that still have frozen iced over area. These area still slippery. But since so much has defrosted and melted, it also tells me that at this time of year these areas do not get much sun. Hmmmm. Something to think about and be aware of. Some small patches on my walk way to the house are slick, essentially black ice. I have some ice melt, safe for the dog, that I may use on those patches.

Now you may ask “why bother”? Well I bother because someone that isn’t looking could still slip on these small patches. My dog did today. Its easy to discount those little patches as nothing. But one of those patches is where I back my car out of the driveway. I figure it may be safer to use a melt for my safety than to wait for mother nature. The nights don’t hit the 40’s until just over a week from now. I’d rather melt them and feel safer than leave them as ice and just wait. Now I’m only going to spread ice melt where I walk, not on the mulch that is still frozen. I’m not walking n the mulch. But it has been interesting to look around and see what areas don’t get much sun, or not enough sun to melt ice at this time of year.

I stress this time of year since it would be different during another time of year. Right now my solar lights around my front walk path (an area with ice) don’t receive much sun. You can tell that by the fact they are not real bright at night. And that is way I did this walking around and making note of these still ice covered area.

Such a learning experience.

The day after

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Last night, or rather early this morning, at 1AM I got up. Last night was our coldest night expected. And at 1AM it was 19 degrees outside. How much lower did it actually get, I’m not sure. Considering the forecast for this area was 18 I’m betting we dropped below that.

Yesterday, during the day time, I had a small space heater blowing near where my water softener attaches to the house water. Last year that was where it froze and I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again. I wanted to make sure water was running, so when I turned the heater off, it was to run a tap in one of the spare bathrooms. They said to run it farthest from where water comes in. I didn’t choose that faucet since that was attached to the room I was sleeping in and I didn’t want to listen to dripping water all night. But I did pick the next best. The good news is that running the space heater had heated the area near the water softener to 50 degrees, I had a thermometer near it. Even with out it running all night that area was about 45 this morning. And the water was running okay too.

As for today it is now 2:30 PM and here at my house we have made it up to 40 degrees. Ice is melting, and has been sliding off the roof top. Most of it slid off this morning, and I could hear it, especially when I walked outside, or opened the door. Most of it is now gone, other than those areas that don’t get much sun light.

With this temperature most of the glass areas are now wet, but no longer frozen. Some area, those that have had all day sun, those areas are actually dry. Most of the roads area dry too.

It was dry enough I was actually able to walk Linus, my dog. One thing I notice out on my walk was flying icicles. This morning we had some wind, I noted 8mph on my weather station. Consequently, it was shaking trees. That shaking, at least I’m guessing here, was able to dislodge ice from the trees and send it flying. I even have ice pieces in the middle of my driveway. I’m guessing this is a result of the flying ice, since there is no other easy explanation – no tree limbs over my driveway.

As for the yard, the ice yesterday left one of my apple trees bent over. As of right now its still bent over, but it has not broken. So I’m guessing it has survived so far. It doesn’t look like any limbs broke on any of my trees. I consider that a good thing. I shouldn’t lose any trees from this storm.

It was nice getting out for the walk, but it was cold. I was glad to get back into the house. I will say the birds ate all the birdseed I had out. I mean all the bird seed. It was empty, not much stuck to the bottom even. I did refill it today. I’m sure the brds will be happy for that.