We got kind of lake effect snow fall during the whole last week, together with -10ºC temperatures, so we have decent snow cover now. I managed to protect my figs with up to 3 m high pile of snow. Hopefully that should last through the coldest months, January and February.
BBC weather for my location in the post above. Accuweather in this post. Broadly in agreement. I take the sensationalist long range forecasts with a pinch of salt, they are not going to be very accurate two or three weeks in advance, though I don't doubt we will have some freezing temperatures at some point in January and February.
First of all a very Happy New Year to everyone on the forum. Secondly we have just had announced that this is the warmest new years day on record at 16.2 °C. Buds are swelling like crazy !!! D
Happy New Year all. Rather uneventful here in December unless rain counts. Was clear this morning so woke to icy conditions but back to rain tomorrow.
Happy New Year to all! Just an update, the 16.2C has been beaten by 16.3C in St James's Park. From BBC New Year's Day is warmest on record in the UK, Met Office says: Also record warmest Scottish and Welsh New Years Day. And record New Years Eve for yesterday
@Keith Elliott & @Georgia Strait what is the weather like up there? We have had record snow over 24” the last 24 hours. I figure it must be worse north of here.
Perhaps surprisingly, we haven't had that much snow here. This afternoon I cleared about another 6" of snow off the driveway, but we are expecting more tonight and tomorrow. Had to drive in to Kamloops this afternoon, but luckily we got back just as the latest snowfall was starting up. Temperature here is only -7.7ºC as I write (11:15 p.m.) with a welcome warming trend on the way. We may actually hit 0ºC by next Tuesday!
The last time we had snow like that in Southern England was 1963. How beautiful it looks @Worldly_Wrangler. D
No snow here ;-( ... or ;-) ?... We had -3°C on Thursday morning, but rain has come and we're going to have nights with an average of +3°C for at least a week. I compared with pics taken in 2021, my Prunus mume is more than a week earlier than last year.
Our unreliable forecast says we have winds of 8 k's right now. More like 40 k's plus with much blowing snow. Visibility is under 800 meters, as we cannot see the lake for the snow. Yet it is a balmy -7.7ºC, not including wind chill of course.
still coated in ice here in the fraser valley. It is a beautiful site although we have extensive damage of many trees. Fortunately, overall the japanese maples have faired well. Things hopefully warm up enough today to get most of the ice off the trees. Over 30 cm of snow on the ground as well. Large poplar trees in the back of our property have extensive damage and so does our back fence due to the large branches wiping our parts of it. Overall it is nice to experience a little bit of winter again, reminds us of the child hood days in the 60's and 70's.
Good morning Otto. When I got around to checking how much snow we had on the back deck yesterday afternoon, I discovered that it was now 2 feet deep! All the maples are just about invisible under that much snow. However, in checking this mornings' forecast I see that next week we may see a high of as much as +6ºC. I can only imagine all the melting snow here creating a dandy mess, only to be followed by more freezing weather. One of our girls lives in Chilliwack and she has been sending photos of your lovely snow down there. It does look nice, but brrrrrrr!
Couple of days ago my fig shelter was like on the photo below. Today I topped the pile with another 0.5 m of snow, but finished too late and it was too dark to take a new photo.
Went from record snow to blue skies and a balmy 6° Celsius. I like that the snow is starting to melt but the ice dams sliding off of the roof are starting to damage some of my dwarf maples. I never envisioned that the snowpack would extend 2' off of the roof before coming off in massive chunks.
Do you think there may be a weeping Japanese maple under all that ice? Agassiz is not far from where Otto lives in Chilliwack. Frightful weather, stunning scenery: A collection of your B.C. winter storm photos | Globalnews.ca
@Margot Yes, all of our disectums are identical to the one in Agassiz right now. Still coated with ice this morning ( 3 days now ). I guess it is like a cleansing bath for the maples!
Can a maple recover from losing all of its branches to the trunk? Snow from roof slid off and crushed my ‘Taki no Gawa’. This did not happen last year with this maple.
Yes, the main winter energy storage zone is in the roots so this is not as big a problem as it may seem, assuming the tree was healthy last season and accumulated a decent amount of sugars in the roots. Cut a little above a node on the main stem and reserve buds will shoot from the node and also lower nodes. You can either pick one bud to grow and rub out the others once the main one is established, or choose to grow more. There is often strong epicormic growth so you may end up with too many shoots if you do not reduce the number. If you only grow one or two stems they will likely needed supporting with a cane as they might grow several feet and be relatively soft. Avoid nitrogen fertilizer as you do not want the growth to be softer than it already will be. This is all assuming there are viable nodes on the scion stem. If it is broken down to the rootstock there is no hope for the scion but the root may resprout.
Thanks maf. I was super dissapointed by this. I am going to get a snow retention system during the summer so this doesn't happen again. This was one of the first Japanese maples I planted in my yard after purchasing this house. It has had 1.5 years to establish its roots and was starting to put on a lot of growth. I will make a nice clean cut and see what sprouts out in the spring.
You can't always account for a freakishly cold and snowy winter when choosing where to plant maples, just bad luck. I don't think it would have been a problem if the tree had been older and stronger. But a snow retention system (whatever that is!) will take the risk out of the equation and give you peace of mind for the future. Hope your maple regrows well! I have a book written by an English maple enthusiast who advocated this technique to deliberately cut back a healthy JM to near the base if you wanted to grow a straight stem like a standard.
The newspaper said this is a once in 50yr storm. But getting the snow retention system will give me peace of mind. Snow retention is some brackets that you glue onto the roof to keep the snow from sliding off avalanche style. At least it had some time to establish some roots. It has some nodes below the break on the trunk, so with your advice, I will get some sharp pruners and make a clean cut. Im waiting until after the remaining snow/ice slides off of the roof. There is a lot more up there.
Up here in snow country - we presently have an accumulation of about two feet or so - and practically every metal roof you see has some sort of system to either prevent the snow coming off in huge chunks, or something to break it up into small pieces. That stuff is extremely heavy when it hits the ground. We have an asphalt shingle roof, and unfortunately we managed to get a dandy ice damn on one part of the south facing roof. Yep, you guessed it, on the one sunny day we had, water built up behind the ice and managed to find its' way inside. Now we have a drywall repair to do. Not sure what we are going to do next year, likely some heat tape on the lower edge, or heat under the soffits. We don't need that happening again. All my maples are buried, but its' just loose snow. I will let mother nature dispose of it at her leisure and see what survives. And to think, we are not even half way into January!