Weather 2013

[Lori S.]

Hope you're doing okay there, Todd!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2013/01/newfoundland-humour-shines-through-blizzard-tweets.html

[Hoy]

I could need some of that snow to cover my plants in the arctic temperatures we have now! But without the wind of course

[Tim Ingram]

Just getting a bit colder here with the prospect of snow - which might hold the snowdrops back a bit. Can't really imagine what really cold continental winters are like. This is a good time to catch up on your reading. The Japanese ones on the top row are sumptuous collections of photos of hepaticas and hellebores, grown in the way only the Japanese can. The most thumbed volume is Graham Stuart Thomas's 'Perennial Garden Plants', a real bible when I started gardening... I am not sure whether my garden lives up to the books though, it always seems a little more weedy!

[Jandals]

No snow or arctic conditions in the lower half of the planet . Those pictures from Newfoundland are amazing
Today was supposed to be a sleep-in day but at 6.05 there was a clap of thunder above our house that woke everybody . The dog ( a collie) got such a fright she snapped her chain in half and I've just managed to find her . The back of my stationwagon is now open and she is sitting in there and will not come out . Poor thing .
The thing that annoys me is that there was only one clap of thunder , not even a decent storm , that interrupted sleep-in day .
Put your feet up and enjoy the reading Tim

[cohan]

I was also wondering how Todd was doing with all that snow- looks like wet heavy snow which we fortunately rarely get- and I heard they are getting freezing rain on top of that snow..

Our low yesterday morning was around -28, and Mon-Wed are forecast to be above freezing- +6C for Tuesday...

[RickR]

Must be having some fierce winds there in Newfoundland. 

All that snow, yet the tops e of roofs and cars are bare!

[Lis Allison]

Just in case anybody is wondering, the weather here (Eastern Ontario, Canada) is yucky! We got lots of snow over Christmas (yay!) and now it is raining.... My driveway is a sheet of ice (and it is 1/2 a mile long), the path to the plant shed is an ice slope.... we do usually have a January thaw, but this is ridiculous!

[Lori S.]

Yikes, freezing rain is the worst!  Luckily, it doesn't happen too often here.  Be careful out there, Lis!  

These things can be handy in such conditions: 
http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/Footwear/TractionDevices/PRD~5002-768/yaktrax-pro-traction-device-unisex.jsp

[Cockcroft]

A quick hello from the Pacific Northwest -- clear blue skies, glorious sunshine, and 22˚F (-6˚C) this morning.  High temperatures will barely climb above freezing today and lows will be below freezing for the rest of the week.  Freezing fog coats leaves with ice crystals.  Quite picturesque but the cold damage might be serious.

[Hoy]

Claire, that's exactly the weather we have here too! The mets have predicted the same weather for at least a week more

[cohan]

Hope that melts, Lis! As Lori said, we don't get much of that here- has to be some advantage to our climate...lol  We did have rain forecast for mid-week but they've rescinded that for now- just 5-10cm snow again on Monday!

Claire and Trond- ah to live somewhere where -6C would be cold enough to be a concern!  Seriously, hope you don't have too many losses- we still haven't reached any of the lowest temperatures we could have by this time in winter- we haven't quite hit -30C and we could have had -40C(-40F) by now! So any plants that don't make it this winter are likely just not hardy enough (barring incorrect siting..).

[Hoy]

I am not very concerned of the cold yet. Last year was bad with very mild January, February and March and then severe frost in April when the plants were in full growth:(
It is better with cold weather now to prevent a too early start. I had to bring some pots with seedlings starting to sprout indoors yesterday. Among them were 3 pots of Helleborus seedlings.

[cohan]

Untimely warmth is dangerous- natives here are very conservative starting growth to avoid that risk, since we are guaranteed to have cold weather after warm weather in spring,  but I'm sure exotics could be more at risk...

[Weiser]

Been cold here in Reno about ten degrees below normal for us with little to no snow cover in the valleys. The cold air invertions have settled in so it didn't break the freezing mark in the last four days. It'll test the marginally hardy species. (about a dozen Aizoaceae I planted last summer) Should slowly warm up by the weekend.

[cohan]

Opposite for us, John- warm this week: well above freezing, even up to 7 oddly they just said on the weather that the only places warmer than Alberta today in North America are southern California and Southern Florida! Edmonton and Phoenix at the same temperature!..lol we'll be back to normal or below on the weekend..