It looks like we are going to get above zero later this afternoon at last. Our low here in the North Shuswap was -25ºC, exactly what the forecast was. It stayed there for a couple of days, but has been -19ºC or above since then. As of right now it is -1º and - fingers crossed - we are due for +3º later this afternoon. I'm not sure what our windspeed was when we had the nasty lows, but there were very big whitecaps on the lake on one of the days. It takes about 25 kms of wind to get the whitecaps started, so likely at least 4o kms, similar to what Otto experienced. Calm with very light snow as we speak. A belated happy new year to everyone.
It looks like my Acer laevigatum will finally shed its leaves, but the buds look OK. The temperatures are now above zero :
I don't currently have a laevigatum alive outside, sadly, but your other one is doing fine in the unheated greenhouse. It had lost a lot of leaves prior to the big cold snap. Over the course of the 10 day (or so) period of cold, we had many days where it stayed below zero, but got up to 5-10 in the greenhouse. It froze some in the greenhouse at night, but we usually gained at least 2-3 degrees on outside, so that a freeze of -4C might result in -0.5 or so inside. The 2 worst nights, at -7.0C and -7,3C (the coldest since I put in the weather station in 21, though not historically all that cold), it was -2.3C and -4.8C inside; I think by the latter freeze the ground basically had no heat left in it to release. Here are 4 evergreen maples. (I forgot to get a picture of A. aff sempervirens, in the greenhouse, looking ok). Alain's A. laevigatum, it may lose a few more leaves, or not. A. fabri, one of 2. The freezing had no visible (so far) effect on them. A. coriaceifolium. It has never lost it's leaves, but there does seem to be quite a lot of damage from this event. It had a lot of late growth, as it was chewed up by caterpillars (who love it) early in the year, and practically defoliated. We'll see; unfortunately my other one, a seedling in a pot, died suddenly last spring. A. obtusifolium is evergreen here only if there is not much frost or wind. In spite of this I have had someone insist to me that the tree is _always_ evergreen. I think these leaves will be gone come spring. -E
Thanks for posting Emery, I'm glad that both of our A. laevigatum are surviving. I think mine is in a bigger pot, so it probably can stand low temperatures better. But frankly, it was a kind of betting because I didn't really have a place to protect it, and my son still hasn't brought me back my... "diable" (can't find a translation for that tool with handles that enables to carry heavy loads, I should know but ... la vieillesse est un naufrage) And it's great to see other evergreen maples like the ones you grow. Kudos on you mate ! ;°)
how about touché :) wraps up an entire conversation lecture politely does France as a country have very diverse weather from region to region ? I have never been there
It does, especially in winter. For instance last week it was about 20° in Biarritz (Atlantic coast, near the Spanish border) while it was around 0° near the Belgian border. It was rather exceptional, but there are differences, yes.
Where I come from, it's called a hand truck. I've never heard "folding sack trolley", which while listed in wiki seems pretty archaic. In NY that would get you a "watchewtalkinfool" response. :)
Well first drop of the white stuff today !!! Full marks to the Met office , the forecast they gave for today was spot on 10/10 started early this morning and went on all day , and now it's raining heavily ( also forecasted ) and all the snow will probably be gone by tomorrow with temps into double figures ?? , very strange weather indeed.
Hi, Harrogate is north-east of West Yorkshire. If you click on the location at the bottom of the "info" in the left-hand column, a map will open in a new window - I discovered that myself about 2 years after registering! :
Well the rain is certainly clearing the snow away now , it's going just as quickly as it came and the roads are completely clear .would expect it to be all gone by tomorrow ?
Yes we are about 25/30 miles away from Harrogate , they have a couple of great flower shows there every year at the Great Yorkshire show ground which we usually attend.
Don't worry Derek we will still get another hosepipe ban come the summer time , and just think the water rates are going up as well in April !!! :( :(
Thanks for the heads up about water bills Mark. What a mess this country is in !! And yes, a hosepipe ban is definitely on the cards after 6 months of solid rain.
That’s good to know — i am looking on iPhone - i think Safari browser - so I don’t see that detail option at this moment I ask about Harrogate because great great family ancestors from there (and Leeds) EDIT — i see it now under « profile » thanks for pointing this out
My goodness, it sounds like you folks in my homeland are having great fun with your weather. I will say that here in western Canada where we are it has been probably the warmest and least snowiest winter that I can remember. To date we have only had about 3 feet of snow. Now I do realize that it sounds like a lot, but it came in small doses, generally anywhere between maybe 3 inches and 8 inches at a time. The maximum accumulation only reached about 14 inches because it warmed up between most snowfalls. As of today, there is barely 2 or 3 inches anywhere on the property, the rest having melted. The roads are clear. Val just went to the coast this morning and told me that the drive was excellent. That's close to 500 kilometres with practically no snow anywhere, most unusual for early February. Sitting at 5.6ºC right now, and yesterday we reached 10.2ºC for a short while. As of now, the lake below us is way down as far as the water level goes, and with the lack of snowpack my guess is that it isn't likely to reach normal levels later this year. Nothing to really be concerned about yet, as the lake is very deep and has a few trillion gallons of water. Except for when the expected forest fires start up again. But who knows, maybe we will have extra rain in the later spring or early summer. There's no doubt that we are living in a very changing world with respect to our weather patterns.
We had a sunny Friday last week, with 19°C in the afternoon ! Now the temperatures are almost back to normal, we had about 3-4°C this morning and they forecast 11°C for the afternoon. Very foggy this morning, the droplets enhance the cobwebs :
Thought I would add my weather here in Southern England. The newspaper headlines this morning are... THE WETTEST FEBRUARY IN 258 YEARS OK February's not over yet, but it's forecast rain every day up to March 1st. Oh yes, the first week of March is rain also. Don't think my garden planted maples will be happy....
That's not a good turn of events. I hope you're free of flooding in your location, Derek. Do you know how much rain you've had this February? I don't know where we stand in the records, but we have now reached nearly 110mm in February, and 250mm since the beginning of the year. Walking around the garden, many maples are simply sitting in big puddles of water. We know how much they enjoy that. It looks to be continuing warm, with 2-3 weeks of advance on a "normal" season, whatever that means anymore. -E
cold front moving in here with snow likely tueday night (feb 27). This is the potential heavy ugly wet snow that makes trimming the cedar hedging a lot more work at the end of March. I am sure that will be it for our "winter weather" once this system passes