What Is The Weather Today? (No Mercury Jockeying!) - Page 2248

Marty_Mcfly · #**44941** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 2:31 PM**

Sun, cloud, occasional snow squalls, very windy, and -12 at 11am, with temperatures continuing to drop. Should get down to around -16 this afternoon.

Some of the wild chill values from around the Maritimes overnight are insane. Moncton and Saint John -47, Halifax and Charlottetown -43. Heck, even Yarmouth wind chill was down at -37.

Marty_Mcfly · #**44942** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 2:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Currently -25 in Halifax.

This will be a true stress test for their few boxed palms.

That's pretty darn cold, but it will also be brief, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

I realize now that Arrdeeharharharbour had said that they were out of the country for a few weeks just a few days ago, and had left without covering their palms.

Best of luck on that.....

SignalHillHiker · #**44943** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 2:39 PM**

Oh no. He loves his plants.

Hopefully they're fine and, if not, really sorry Arrdee.

Metro-One · #**44944** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 3:22 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marty_Mcfly

I realize now that Arrdeeharharharbour had said that they were out of the country for a few weeks just a few days ago, and had left without covering their palms.

Best of luck on that.....

Dang, that's bad timing, I hope they survive, but -26 is pretty tall order, and I'm starting to think the sudden drop from above freezing to such temps could make it worse. Hearing stories of native trees exploding from the sudden deep freeze.

OldDartmouthMark · #**44945** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 3:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marty_Mcfly

I realize now that Arrdeeharharharbour had said that they were out of the country for a few weeks just a few days ago, and had left without covering their palms.

Best of luck on that.....

Hopefully he had a back up plan for a friend or relative to come by and cover them up.

It would be a shame to lose them for one night and one day of arctic-like temperatures...

MonctonRad · #**44946** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 3:37 PM**

Moncton's palm tree is in a box on the plaza in front of the Avemir Centre. I hope they plugged in a really long extension cord and put a heater in the box.

SignalHillHiker · #**44947** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 4:23 PM**

Well, fuck.

north 42 · #**44948** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 4:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by flar

We bottomed out at -16.6 around midnight. Wasn't too bad, it wasn't windy or anything. It's now -8 and heading back above freezing by this evening and could be double digits by Tuesday.

Same here, -16.7C around midnight, going up to 0C today with bright sunny skies.
The up coming week has all above freezing highs as well as some lows.

OldDartmouthMark · #**44949** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 4:44 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Hearing stories of native trees exploding from the sudden deep freeze.

I wonder what species they are? I'm surrounded by trees (mostly pine, spruce, maple, silver maple, apple) but have seen no such thing.

Metro-One · #**44950** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 4:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

I wonder what species they are? I'm surrounded by trees (mostly pine, spruce, maple, silver maple, apple) but have seen no such thing.

Not sure if some species are more vulnerable than others, but the sap and water in the trees freezes too quickly for the tree to adapt to the change in conditions, causing it to crack and splinter in places. Full on explosions of the trunk is rare, but does happen. If you were to wonder into a forest last night you would likely have heard some distinctive loud snaps and cracks.

OldDartmouthMark · #**44951** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 5:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Not sure if some species are more vulnerable than others, but the sap and water in the trees freezes too quickly for the tree to adapt to the change in conditions, causing it to crack and splinter in places. Full on explosions of the trunk is rare, but does happen. If you were to wonder into a forest last night you would likely have heard some distinctive loud snaps and cracks.

Oh I don't doubt that it happens. However, as I posted previously I could hear some cracks and snaps from trees last night (as I have in previous years), but none have "exploded" around me.

Just an observation. Maybe there are mass explosions of trees in other parts of Halifax, but I personally have not seen it, despite being surrounded by literally hundreds of trees.

Have you ever experienced a tree exploding near you? It must be quite startling.

SignalHillHiker · #**44952** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 5:08 PM**

Coldest airmass on the planet currently. We're close enough to the edge that it's not too bad yet but, damn, this is brutal.

Tancredi · #**44953** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 5:36 PM**

The coldest area on the planet, but check out that ass.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Coldest airmass on the planet currently. We're close enough to the edge that it's not too bad yet but, damn, this is brutal.

le calmar · #**44954** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 5:37 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Metro-One

You got so fucking lucky Montreal.

Your coldest temperature in decades won’t register because you got an N/A at 4am.

Good job Environment Canada!

-29.3 there now.

The whole day will register as N/A even for one hour missing? That’s lame… But at the same time, the data is incomplete so I understand why they would do that. It’s frustrating how unreliable EC has become recently.

TownGuy · #**44955** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 6:01 PM**

Warm and humid with a chance of cats.

In all actuality, -5C and light snow today.

someone123 · #**44956** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 6:54 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark

Hopefully he had a back up plan for a friend or relative to come by and cover them up.

It would be a shame to lose them for one night and one day of arctic-like temperatures...

It's not clear this is beyond what those palms can take. If they are t. fortunei they're originally from mountainous subtropical areas (not true tropical palms) and some commenters have said the trees have survived -26. I doubt it actually was -26 in a sheltered location by somebody's house around town. Halifax Dockyard got down to -23.5, likely the coldest since the station was set up in 2004, maybe by a big margin. It was below -20 for 14 hours. I wonder if the bigger survival challenge for palms in NS isn't to do with snow and ice, rot, and maybe just the length of winter or ratio of growing season to winter. I think if people try to develop suitable varieties of these palms and practices they will become easy to grow eventually.

Baccaro Point got down to -19.5. Some daily records may have been set but doesn't look like all-time records were set and the spread of low temperatures is about what we'd expect. -26 in Baccaro would be surprising. To keep this in perspective, Vancouver has gotten down to -17.8 and this past December hit -13.5. This cold snap also seems much shorter than the worst ones of the 90's and early 2000's.

If this is a once in 30 year event at this point and it kills palm trees it's possible to just plant new ones. It's pretty common for people to push marginal exotics that die back once in a while. Of course, the probabilities are always just an estimate and the climate is changing.

Marty_Mcfly · #**44957** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 7:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by le calmar

The whole day will register as N/A even for one hour missing? That’s lame… But at the same time, the data is incomplete so I understand why they would do that. It’s frustrating how unreliable EC has become recently.

Environment Canada does sometimes go back and manually add data that did not record properly a few days later. It all depends on why something didn't register. Computer malfunction or communications error can be fixed. Broken instruments can not be fixed.

St. John's infamous snowmageddon blizzard in 2020 did not technically get added to its daily historic data because weather monitoring equipment got damaged in the storm. So none of the snow is in the monthly report, the bone chilling cold that follows doesn't get added to the average temperature. Not sure exactly what broke, but since a lot of systems were reading normally it seems like throwing the whole dataset out was like throwing the baby out with the bath water....

OldDartmouthMark · #**44958** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 8:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by someone123

Vancouver has gotten down to -17.8 and this past December hit -13.5.

Clearly this must be misinformation. Vancouver never gets cold or snow and is always shrouded in warm spring-like temperatures throughout the winter (and nobody on the west coast would ever even dream of traveling to the cold, snowy, backwater east coast)...

Quote:

Originally Posted by someone123

This cold snap also seems much shorter than the worst ones of the 90's and early 2000's.

That's my anecdotal opinion as well. Actually I recall the 1970s and 1980s seemed generally colder, and the cold weather snaps lasted longer. Not sure if there is data to back this up (nor do I want to take the time to research it), but that's my memory...

someone123 · #**44959** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 9:11 PM**

I used to live on pogey and would supplement my income by harvesting seaweed during the good years when the sea ice got thin enough. When I lost my right arm to a tree explosion that was the last straw and I had to move somewhere more temperate.

SignalHillHiker · #**44960** Posted **Feb 4, 2023, 9:54 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by someone123

I used to live on pogey and would supplement my income by harvesting seaweed during the good years when the sea ice got thin enough. When I lost my right arm to a tree explosion that was the last straw and I had to move somewhere more temperate.

I've had two laughs in like 20 minutes.

The other... guy poking fun at the local news stations always doing the "ST. JOHN'S IS WARMER THAN ORLANDO!" BS...