California weekend weather

Looks like a '"perfect storm" scenario. Friday is the worst with a 30 percent chance of rain and low predicted to be 26F in Oceanside. Those numbers are from weather.com. It's supposed to be windier than this past weekend as well. I'm watering while it's warm, and waiting to see how it developes before I decide to protect my sensitive palms. Wet frozen sheets might be a bad idea.

Having tropical plants makes one nervous all winter. Can't wait for lows in the 50s again.

wow oside, I did not see that. 26 degrees on Friday! With a low like that are they expecting freezing rain? But 30% ain't much. Maybe it won't rain.

This message was edited Jan 8, 2007 10:56 PM

Another source says the coast will be a whopping 39 degrees on Friday, and inland will get to 27 degrees. Worse yet, there is supposed to be at least 3 nights in the 20's and 30's. The forecast I read didn't go past Friday, so it may be longer. Amazing, it was 72 degrees in my backyard at 730 pm tonight - At those temps, I could grow Cocos, Euterpes....
good luck Southern Californians.

weather.yahoo.com offers also the option "extended forecast", which gives an additional four days' forecast (that is, till Wednesday 17 January). According to this forecast, lows will be in the 30s untill that day (at least in Oceanside).

This message was edited Jan 9, 2007 9:17 AM

I've been watering about once a week, but skipping if it rains a bit. I watered this morning because everything is so dry and it was almost 50F outside.

It looks to rain before the nasty-freeze hits. Is all this ground water good or bad?

This message was edited Jan 9, 2007 1:07 PM

Here's a graphic. Your area might be not so dramatic in other parts of SoCal.

Where are you pulling that graph. I want to look at Vista.

I think its from weather.com under the 10 day http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/USCA1205?from=36hr_topnav_undeclared

hope everything works out ok for you guys. Cold weather sucks!

Thanks for that link. When I went to it I saw 30 deg on Saturday. I then decided to check my exact zip code to see what happens:
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/92081?from=36hr_fcst10DayLink_undeclared

Very odd. 7 degrees warmer. For all you weather nuts, is their system so accurate it can track the microclimates? Or is this some error on their data? I could see a 1 or 2 degree difference. But 7 is nuts. I am not complaining if it is true. :)

Mardy Darian has his garden a few blocks from me. I always knew this area had a really warm microclimate since he has many things that can not take freeze and that are old. So it must not freeze in this little area much. I just got my new weather station so I will be able to reallytrack the temps now.

This message was edited Jan 9, 2007 5:52 PM

We might be getting snow tonight along with all this wind. I've noticed with all the fallen trees, broken branches, etc the palms (Trachycarpus) fared better than most trees in the wind and heavy snow.

Who knows how exact these forecasts are. For instance, supposedly, todays low in Anaheim is 19 degrees warmer than nearby (few miles) Cypress. I know Anaheim ain't a giant microclimate, I think that is wrong. Also the latest I heard is that the powerful Artic storm may now weaken quite a bit before hitting SoCal.

well at the very least, it should get pretty darn cold for SoCal this weekend, rain or no rain.

Geez, please no more wind!!!! I spent all day yesterday between urgent care and the emergency room with two wind-related injuries: my 17-year old daughter received a concussion from getting hit on the head by a flying trash can lid, and my mom broke two ribs when she was knocked over by the wind while chasing her trash cans! Bring rain, fog, whatever...just no more wind - we've had it in San Bernardino's north end :-(

good grief! I just realized that Friday is...The Day After Tomorrow!

There a few zip codes for Oceanside and mine might be the coldest. The San Luis Rey River creates a cold air basin, and I bet they are measuring from somewhere like the Oceanside airport. My house is 50 ft up the hill from real bottom land. I've noticed my zip code always has low temp predictions worse than my own yard.

If we really hit 26, and it's below 32 for 3-4 hours, I'm going to take some hits. Especially if it does it two nights in a row. I'm wrapping my 10a palms. I think the others will be okay.

terry I think the Oceanside reading is consistently from the pier. Which I think is weird. Why measure the pier temp? No one lives there except those hardy fishermen who fish thru the night. Man that must be cold.

To date, here in Long Beach, on my street alone, I have seen several Phoenix roeb's. turn brown and four that I know of are completely dead....I've been covering the ones I have in front with an old bedspread at night.....I've also seen frozen Phormiums....BIG ONES .....and some dormant Plumerias turn to mush....and people think it doesn't get cold here.....

FoF: I think the TV weather forecasts are from the pier. But weather.com has Oceanside readings consistently colder than Vista, Camp Pendleton, and San Marcos. A San Luis Rey plain reading is the only explanation. The pier is the mildest weather in O'side, followed by property up on the highest points. Like near where Oceanside Blvd intersects with Melrose.

JasperDale: Roebilinis are fine down to the mid 20s. I'm not even worried about mine. Something else is turning those things brown. My plumeria lost all it's leaves weeks ago. I'm hoping they come back.

osideterry, do not worry about your Plumeria. Mine always loses the leaves when it turns cold. They go dormant in the winter here. Of course in Hawaii, they prolly grow year round. It'll come back fine when it gets warm in the summer. Mine always does. This was kind of a weird year for my plumeria. Since it stayed warm so deep into autumn and even early winter, mine was flowering with it's leaves still intact with flowers blooming in early December. Very strange. Only now have all the leaves dropped.

Chance of snow showers Friday AM in Woodland Hills!!!!!! What's going on here?

Is my 2 gallon Kentia palm I bought at Lowe's going to die? It's my first palm tree and although on my patio facing south, it has exposure to the elements including the cold air.

Zip Code: 91303

http://www.weather.com/weather/wxdetail/USCA1261?dayNum=2

It won't die if you make plans to protect it. You will need heavy blankets-layers of them, and heavy plastic to cover all of it. Good luck!

2 gallon? Bring it in the house! They love it inside. Kentias are fairly cold hardy, down to 24-25F. Since it's a baby, I wouldn't mess around.

osideterry: I went around and looked at several of the Roebellini's I thought were frozen...and dead...it seems the winds we had dried them up, but they appear to be green deep inside...I talked to one man who took me into his backyard...he left all the dried fronds on his palms and tied them up around the new growth to insulate them...he says it works, but looks awful...this man is in the carpeting trade so he made himself "sleeves" out of carpet that he wears when he does this...he says it protects him from getting jabbed by the spikes...I thought that was pretty ingenious...!!! He also made all these cones out of old carpet to place over tender tropicals and attached the carpet to tomato cages...with the backing facing out...he says it makes great insulation and is waterproof...in a million years, I would have never thought of that!

The Roebellini's that seemed to have suffered the worse are the ones where the old fiber and "husks" blew off in the winds and now have exposed knobby trunks (that look like a spinal column...) He covered the trunks in carpet too.

I always look at Long Beach as being serious Zone 10B. Hard to imagine Roebilinis dying by anything other than lack of water there. My palms are looking less than ideal due the wind as well, and our winds here are milder than most places.

I'm convinced date palms contain a toxin of some kind. I now wear work gloves but when my pygmies stab me it turns red, and inches and stings for hours.

I like the carpet cages idea. Tonight I finished wrapping several of my palms in burlap. Palms wrapped included a King Alexander, Veitchia arecina, Caryota gigas, Chamaedorea tepijilote, Caryota urens (small), and two Foxtails. I left the Kings, Kentias, Arecas, and Roebilinis to fend for themselves.

Our bottom temperatures are to hit early Sunday morning between 4 and 9am. Is it raining anywhere yet?

hmmm thinking about bringing in the house a 5 gal Kentia i just bought.
prolly should.
what's the catchphrase these days? an abundance of caution.

Clear skies and 40F here in the San Fernando Valley this morning

Boy this weather sure has alot of you local so cal folks scared. I've only noticed cold damage on 2 newly purchased palms. One being a 15 Prestoa acuminata and the other is a Gausia attenuata. Other than that all of my new caledonia and madgasascan palms are doing just fine!

This message was edited Jan 12, 2007 10:48 AM

This message was edited Jan 12, 2007 1:58 PM

I covered all my tropical hibiscus' last night and boy am I glad. Rain and snow last night and this morning, as well as wind. Right now it's 39 and we still have snow on the ground...I have to say though, the foothills and mountains are just beautiful and snow covered :-)

deezpalms

You are only 4-5 miles from me as the crow flies, but your microclimate is much different. You are both closer to the coast and on a hill. I can see Guajome Lake and San Luis Rey beyond from my deck. If the temps go lower than the 27F in the forecast and stay below freezing for several hours on consecutive nights I'm in trouble. After posting last night, I wrapped my Roystonea regia. I'll probably wrap my 2 smallest (15g) king palm multis tonight.

One more thing. The latest hour-by-hour on weather.com has my zip code at 32F or lower from 11pm Saturday to 8am Sunday. 8+ hours below freezing, with a low of 28F.

34F am... breeze (so feels like 24F)... but no frost... however, supposed to be 25F tonight!!!

Never so glad to wake up and see clouds. I had a minumum reading of 34.3F. Considering it was predicteded to hit 29F, I'll take it. It's supposed to hit 25F here as well. I'm hoping that is 5F off also.

I hit 33.5 last night at 4:30 AM. I was gald to see clouds too. However on the news they said they will fade by this evening and it will be clear and cold.

I hope members from other states read these posts...so many people think it's always beach weather here in SoCal.

The water in my possum bowl was frozen solid at 6:30 a.m. today. ( people say not to feed them , but I feel sorry for the little critters....)

I had a minimum of 31F at 6AM this morning, no frost, but some of the more tender palms and tropicals have visible leave damage. I don't think anything will die, but I know they will look like crap until they rebound with the warmer weather this spring. Getting ready for round two tonight.

25 F !!!!!! Wow, this is cold... I've been complaing about my cool winter high temps compared to So Cal, but the lowest so far (this winter) in my area has been only about 38F. It would be interesting (and rather educative for the rest of us that hail from other parts of the world) to post the performance of your most sensitive palms under these hard conditions. Good luck to all of you.

I woke up about 5:00AM and decided to see how bad it had gotten. I would swear, in my half-awake state, that I read 36 on our weather station. I zipped outside to rescue a few stragglers, but it didn't feel that cold. I went back to bed. At 9:00AM, I checked the HIGH-LOW and it said 41.1 degrees for the low, shortly before the time of my plant rescue mission. I am left curious.

I woke up at 3 am this morning from a dream I was having....there were three palms in a row...as I was watching them the first a queen just fell over at the soil line (dam) then the triangle palm did the same.....so once awake I checked the reading it was 37f in the back yard.....I am hoping I prepared well enough for the cold....here is a pic of what I did....
Curt

It "only" got down to 39F at 6:20 this morning, so it wasn't as bad as I feared. Maybe I have sort of a microclimate of my own in my backyard. osideterry has seen and knows it back there and tells me it might be kind of wind-protected since I have a lot of high trees and Oleanders that are screening the wind. I'm also not up against the San Luis Rey riverbed like he is.

I brought in my Kentia just to be safe and boy does it look good in my living room!

FoF: It's the most popular indoor palm for a reason. I just don't like managing inside plants. The watering and humidity seems less forgiving.

I have now wrapped almost everything in burlap, including palms hardy down to 20-22F. I'm leaving them like that until this weather pattern is over. Not resorting to christmas lights, gas patio heaters, or building tents. What happens happens.

I didn't wrap the following: a 20ft queen and 5 roebilinis. The queen has a 10" thick trunk and the crown is 12ft up. The roebilinis look like tough little b@$+@rds, and I'm not messing with the spines. My Livistona decorum bit me twice, and that's enough for these hands. If a pygmy dies, I'll dig it up and plant something with more entertainment value.