KXAN weather just warned of a possible frost/freeze in parts of Austin
Saturday night/Sunday morning.


--
Marta
(if you email me directly you need to remove the X )

Guess I need to cover my tomato plants?

"Wayfarer" wrote in message gy.com...
KXAN weather just warned of a possible frost/freeze in parts of Austin
Saturday night/Sunday morning.

ccnoah wrote:
Guess I need to cover my tomato plants?

If you think that weather folks actually can predict weather, sure. Didn't
the KXAN folks totally missed the ice storm a few weeks ago?

--
Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv

(Victor M. Martinez) wrote in
:

Subject: Possible frost/freeze Saturday night/Sunday Morning
From: (Victor M. Martinez)
Newsgroups: austin.gardening

ccnoah wrote:
Guess I need to cover my tomato plants?

If you think that weather folks actually can predict weather,
sure. Didn't the KXAN folks totally missed the ice storm a few
weeks ago?

All the weather services did. I heard an explanation, but it didn't
stick in my brain.

Anyway, I would like to point out that the National Weather Service
http://tinyurl.com/5sgs has revised their forecast so that the
lowest temp they predict now is 32 for Saturday night. Which is
pretty damned cold for April! (Last night they were predicting 30.)

Karen

Karen wrote:
Anyway, I would like to point out that the National Weather Service
http://tinyurl.com/5sgs has revised their forecast so that the

Yikes! They're predicting flurries for Saturday!!!

lowest temp they predict now is 32 for Saturday night. Which is
pretty damned cold for April! (Last night they were predicting 30.)

Well, yes. But April doesn't start until Tuesday.

--
Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv

(Victor M. Martinez) wrote in
:

Karen wrote:
Anyway, I would like to point out that the National Weather
Service http://tinyurl.com/5sgs has revised their forecast so
that the

Yikes! They're predicting flurries for Saturday!!!

lowest temp they predict now is 32 for Saturday night. Which is
pretty damned cold for April! (Last night they were predicting
30.)

Well, yes. But April doesn't start until Tuesday.

Well, that makes it all okay then!!!!

When I was growing up in Michigan, I expected weather like this in
April, but in Texas?! Well, I've been here long enough to know that
there is no such thing as expectations wrt weather... I have
friends who live in Maine, and it was cooler here last July 4th
than it was there.

Karen

I figure when it is close I would rather be on the safe side -- especially
with "tender" new plants. If the weather guys miss it just cost me a little
hassle, but if they are right and I ignored them I'm out the ocst of new
plants (if those same varities are still available and not sold out), time
in the ground, and the hassle of replanting . . .

--
Marta
(if you email me directly you need to remove the X )

Howdy folks,
One of the things I've noticed is that ever since the Florida
Citrus growers sued the National weather service for not predicting a
freeze some years ago, the forecasters cover themselves by predicting
the coldest temperatures in the predicted range.
Even if it goes below forty, there are a lot of recently planted
babies that need to be covered like all those Basil plants in herb
gardens all over Austin.
Another thing I've noticed is that while much is made of the
'Average last freeze date " in early March, it still mean. being an
average that we still have a fifty-fifty chance of a freeze. I once
saw an Ag map of "One in ten chance of a freeze" that farmers use when
they don't want to risk a number of acres on a fifty-fifty planting
date.
The date when Austin drops to a one in ten chance of a freeze, if I
remember correctly was March 30 th, which sounds about right since old
timers can all tell you about the time it froze in April. If you are
spending a large amount of money on a landscape with frost tender
plants that would be a good date to remember. ( Although nothing will
stop the tomato planting gang from setting out plants too early )
I also think if I heard Jim Spencer the other night, right, that
April 3rd was our latest freeze of the season for some number of
years. Someone else in the group may have better info.
I know I can count on at least one more cold front after I've
climbed up into the attic and turned off the pilot on the gas heater.

take care,
Steve Coyle
www.austingardencenter.com

In article ,
(Steve Coyle) wrote:

I also think if I heard Jim Spencer the other night, right, that
April 3rd was our latest freeze of the season for some number of
years. Someone else in the group may have better info


http://weather.yahoo.com/climo/USTX0057_f.html

This page has all the records for Austin. According to it we reached 31
F on 13th April 1940.

Amazingly, this page also shows record temperatures at or above 90 F for
every single month of the year!!!
Coldest it has ever got is -2F and hottest is 109 F.

Roland