Damaging freeze thread

[CoastalWx]

Snowing on the outer Cape.

[Ginx snewx]

I don't know where it was, it was one of those things where I looked up briefly because I was cooking.

Either way, the fact that even happened in late March in Maine is beyond absurd.

Tell me about it, it was hotter at elevation. 80+ for days

[Ginx snewx]

WTF, from the link Scott posted, man found dead on lift at Cannon

http://www.wmur.com/r/30707478/detail.html

[#NoPoles]

My blueberry bush before i tarped it up...eeK said to wrap it in xmas lights and then wrap it up to try to keep the buds from freezing...hopefully the xmas lights produce enough heat...temp is dropping like a rock even though the wind is still gusting really hard...31.2, already below freezing

[CoastalWx]

LOL, Diane is now known as the crazy lady on the block.

[Ginx snewx]

LOL, Diane is now known as the crazy lady on the block.

She's a redneck woman, keeps her Christmas lights up all year long.

[#NoPoles]

lol! that tarp was glowing pretty good with all the xmas lights underneath...however we were just hit by a wcked strong and sustained wind gust that made the house creak and groan...and i only used 4 stakes to hold the tarp down...i haven't looked, but i'm pretty sure that thing must have taken off like abat out of hell and is now blowing around the streets of Medway like a tumble weed...

[CapturedNature]

According to the chesterfield Co-Op's numbers our latest frost was 7/2 with our earliest frost being 8/22/. About a 7 week period where we haven't seen below freezing temps occur.

This got me looking up my own numbers from the past 28 years. In terms of an actual 32° reading, the latest that I have seen one is June 4th, 1986 and the earliest one was Sep 11th, 1995 or 99 days. If I look at 37° readings which can also lead to scattered frost, the dates are Jul 2nd, 1988 & Aug 25th, 1987 or a mere 54 days - very similar to the Chesterfield no's, interestingly.

No year has been earlier than April 26th so we have several more weeks to go and even then my average date for a last frost is May 12th.

30° here and 26° up in Union attm.

[HoarfrostHubb]

WTF, from the link Scott posted, man found dead on lift at Cannon

http://www.wmur.com/...478/detail.html

Yeah, I read that the other day.

My high during the torch was 79F

Now I am at 27F with a whipping wind. MOOORRRCCHH!

[HoarfrostHubb]

My blueberry bush before i tarped it up...eeK said to wrap it in xmas lights and then wrap it up to try to keep the buds from freezing...hopefully the xmas lights produce enough heat...temp is dropping like a rock even though the wind is still gusting really hard...31.2, already below freezing

If the bulbs are LED, it won't work. They produce little heat

Good luck with the bush

[weatherMA]

30.8/8, about 30F cooler then a week ago at this time, but WC is about 40F cooler.

[HoarfrostHubb]

This got me looking up my own numbers from the past 28 years. In terms of an actual 32° reading, the latest that I have seen one is June 4th, 1986 and the earliest one was Sep 11th, 1995 or 99 days. If I look at 37° readings which can also lead to scattered frost, the dates are Jul 2nd, 1988 & Aug 25th, 1987 or a mere 54 days - very similar to the Chesterfield no's, interestingly.

No year has been earlier than April 26th so we have several more weeks to go and even then my average date for a last frost is May 12th.

30° here and 26° up in Union attm.

That is so great that you have kept those records.

I remember June 5 1986. I turned 18 and graduated from high school

And the Celtics lost game 6 to the Rockets (but won game 7 a few days later)

[eekuasepinniW]

My blueberry bush before i tarped it up...eeK said to wrap it in xmas lights and then wrap it up to try to keep the buds from freezing...hopefully the xmas lights produce enough heat...temp is dropping like a rock even though the wind is still gusting really hard...31.2, already below freezing

oh f*** those look like LED lights... SORRY.

my simmering hatred of LED lights makes me pretend they don't exist... you need regular lights for this. I think LED strings use like 3 watts total which is crap compared to the 25-30 watts a normal string burns. you probably need 75-100 watts total.

have any regular strings? or maybe one of those worklights you use when crawling around a crawlspace? if all else fails, fill several buckets with hot water stick them under the tarp. refill every hour or so.

there is also the grocery store for blueberries without hassle.

[#NoPoles]

actually there not LED...well, there is one strand on there but i have 3 strands of non-LED attached...they were all tangled together in the bin so i didn't bother to try to get them untangled...

[dryslot]

oh f*** those look like LED lights... SORRY.

my simmering hatred of LED lights makes me pretend they don't exist... you need regular lights for this. I think LED strings use like 3 watts total which is crap compared to the 25-30 watts a normal string burns. you probably need 75-100 watts total.

have any regular strings? or maybe one of those worklights you use when crawling around a crawlspace? if all else fails, fill several buckets with hot water stick them under the tarp. refill every hour or so.

there is also the grocery store for blueberries without hassle.

[tamarack]

Either way Maine had that late season snow and freeze back in may 2010. I know there was some damage (probably worse than this will have) and they managed just fine. So we'll we.

A few flakes of May snow (none in MBY), then 3 days in low-mid 20s killed all the blossoms on my apple trees. I've got only 3 of them, but orchardists in this part of the foothills got hammered, often losing over 2/3 of their fruit set. Hope they were insured. At least the ash/oaks that lost their new shoots appeared to make out all right. Unfortunately, so did the Japanese knotweed.

And that flowering fruit tree was probably a crabapple up against a dark south-facing wall in Kittery.

Temp has stayed at 24 here since 6 PM as the wind continues to roar and the clouds cover the stars. As long as the wind blows, I don't think we'll cool more than a couple more degrees. Calm wx and it's lower teens.

[CoastalWx]

A few flakes of May snow (none in MBY), then 3 days in low-mid 20s killed all the blossoms on my apple trees. I've got only 3 of them, but orchardists in this part of the foothills got hammered, often losing over 2/3 of their fruit set. Hope they were insured. At least the ash/oaks that lost their new shoots appeared to make out all right. Unfortunately, so did the Japanese knotweed.

And that flowering fruit tree was probably a crabapple up against a dark south-facing wall in Kittery.

Temp has stayed at 24 here since 6 PM as the wind continues to roar and the clouds cover the stars. As long as the wind blows, I don't think we'll cool more than a couple more degrees. Calm wx and it's lower teens.

That event was pretty serious..likely much more than this for sure.

[eekuasepinniW]

actually there not LED...well, there is one strand on there but i have 3 strands of non-LED attached...they were all tangled together in the bin so i didn't bother to try to get them untangled...

oh excellent.

I've decided to abandon my crabapple. I planted it three years ago so it's only 3 feet wide but around 7-8 feet tall. Trying to wrap it in the wind roaring off the lake has led to some comical results.

[ORH_wxman]

This got me looking up my own numbers from the past 28 years. In terms of an actual 32° reading, the latest that I have seen one is June 4th, 1986 and the earliest one was Sep 11th, 1995 or 99 days. If I look at 37° readings which can also lead to scattered frost, the dates are Jul 2nd, 1988 & Aug 25th, 1987 or a mere 54 days - very similar to the Chesterfield no's, interestingly.

No year has been earlier than April 26th so we have several more weeks to go and even then my average date for a last frost is May 12th.

30° here and 26° up in Union attm.

That's some impressive numbers...you must be sheltered very well to get those type of numbers. Definitely not like that here with less radiational cooling. But I've seen it be 40F here and then frost in the sheltered basins in May quite frequently.

[CoastalWx]

Temps have slowed there drop for the time being. Will probably be a slow and steady drop through the night.

[Mr Torchey]

36

howling nw winds, very slow drop in temps tonight.

[CoastalWx]

OT, but Frozen Planet is a great show on Discovery.

[ORH_wxman]

27.8F...think we'll get near 20F for the low.

[wxmanmitch]

26.6° F here and dropping slowly. It's real windy, so I'm not sure how low I'll go tonight. NWS P&C has me at 13° F, but I don't think I'll go much below 18 or 19° F. No sense in trying to save any of the early plants because nothing will survive these types of temperatures, no not even with X-Mas lights, tarps, water, whatever.

[eekuasepinniW]

26.6° F here and dropping slowly. It's real windy, so I'm not sure how low I'll go tonight. NWS P&C has me at 13° F, but I don't think I'll go much below 18 or 19° F. No sense in trying to save any of the early plants because nothing will survive these types of temperatures, no not even with X-Mas lights, tarps, water, whatever.

if done correctly, the lights/tarps method actually works splendidly even well below zero.

[dryslot]

CMP reporting 10,237 without power due to the winds this evening here in Central and Southern Maine

[HoarfrostHubb]

if done correctly, the lights/tarps method actually works splendidly even well below zero.

Any new greenhouse pics?

[eekuasepinniW]

Any new greenhouse pics?

haven't taken any pics, but it's up now. not thrilled with the rigidity of the frame and how many air leaks it has. you really get what you pay for when it comes to greenhouses. already gone through a can of expanding foam.

I freaked out today every time the wind slammed it, so I started quickly bolting 2x4's into the corners and every 4 feet to transfer some of the horizontal stress to the 16" knee wall it's sitting on. Ideally, it'll still be there in the morning.

Propane guy dropped off two 300lb tanks for it today. Then a second truck came to fill them (omg $$$). The plumber guy is supposedly coming tomorrow to make the gas connections.

[ORH_wxman]

oh f*** those look like LED lights... SORRY.

my simmering hatred of LED lights makes me pretend they don't exist... you need regular lights for this. I think LED strings use like 3 watts total which is crap compared to the 25-30 watts a normal string burns. you probably need 75-100 watts total.

have any regular strings? or maybe one of those worklights you use when crawling around a crawlspace? if all else fails, fill several buckets with hot water stick them under the tarp. refill every hour or so.

there is also the grocery store for blueberries without hassle.

Can't stand LED xmas lights...I have several strings of C9 incandescent lights that are for the outside bushes. They look about 100x better than the putrid LED lights...the LEDs almost make your eyes hurt when you look at them with that blue tint.

[Ginx snewx]

CMP reporting 10,237 without power due to the winds this evening here in Central and Southern Maine

My power just went out briefly. Odd wind only gusts no sustained.