Chilly Florida AM

[phantomcrab]

I had a low of 38^o F this AM. I have probably lost my mango flowers. Most of the FAWN stations in my area show temperatures near freezing.
FAWN - https://fawn.ifas.ufl.edu/

[Tropheus76]

38? I wouldnt have even covered my trees. We had 28 where I live and the ground is covered in a nice layer of frost. I drove 20 minutes to work on 528 and my hood never unfroze. Glad I got everything I hope I needed covered. Its a Darwin year for my trees though aside from Mangoes and jackfruit.  I noticed my mulch mounds I built at the base of the trees did not have frost on them.

[puglvr1]

The coldest my yard got this morning was 32° but only for a total of about an hour, between 5 to 7am ...and it wasn't continuous. It hovered between 32°-33° during that time. I covered nothing except my potted Desert Rose.

Tonight calls for a low of 30°...I hope that doesn't actually happen, fingers crossed!! Good luck to all that is dealing with this freezing conditions.

[C24mccain]

I've posted my long night already but here in Lakeland near the airport we hit 32 degrees sometime just after midnight. It was 31 at 1am and by 3am we were 28 degrees. We stayed at 28 with a quick dip to 27 at 6am. By 7:45 we were back slightly above 32.

[johnb51]

41 at 6am near the ocean where I live.  (My bedroom 64, and my living room 68.  Currently 69 in the family room, so no heat necessary.  FPL's not getting my money this month!)

[skhan]

38F in the early morning hours here.
No blooms yet so I guess thats good

[Paquicuba]

38F in the early morning hours here.
No blooms yet so I guess thats good

Do you have your own thermometer or you just looked at your iphone? I'm in Weston and the lowest I saw in my own thermometer this morning was 42°F at around 7:00AM. So, the 39°F that the Weather Channel was predicting was off by 3°F or perhaps the canal next to my house helped a little bit. By 8:00AM the thermometer was at 45°F and by 9:00AM it was at 47°F.

Actually, Coral Springs can be a degree or two cooler than Weston - interesting 

[dwfl]

38F in the early morning hours here.
No blooms yet so I guess thats good

Do you have your own thermometer or you just looked at your iphone? I'm in Weston and the lowest I saw in my own thermometer this morning was 42°F at around 7:00AM. So, the 39°F that the Weather Channel was predicting was off by 3°F or perhaps the canal next to my house helped a little bit. By 8:00AM the thermometer was at 45°F and by 9:00AM it was at 47°F.

Actually, Coral Springs can be a degree or two cooler than Weston - interesting 

Unless you spent a pretty penny, most thermometers have a +/- error range of like 5 degrees. I'd trust (most) weather device stations much more. Go on wunderground and locate all the devices nearest your home and check those against your thermometer.

[Paquicuba]

38F in the early morning hours here.
No blooms yet so I guess thats good

Do you have your own thermometer or you just looked at your iphone? I'm in Weston and the lowest I saw in my own thermometer this morning was 42°F at around 7:00AM. So, the 39°F that the Weather Channel was predicting was off by 3°F or perhaps the canal next to my house helped a little bit. By 8:00AM the thermometer was at 45°F and by 9:00AM it was at 47°F.

Actually, Coral Springs can be a degree or two cooler than Weston - interesting 

Unless you spent a pretty penny, most thermometers have a +/- error range of like 5 degrees. I'd trust (most) weather device stations much more. Go on wunderground and locate all the devices nearest your home and check those against your thermometer.

Ok, this is what was recorded for my city, so it looks like my thermometer was pretty close. The same was recorded for Coral Springs.

7:53 AM, Thu 4 January 2018   43°   27°   53%   30.16in   10mi   Unl   NNW 10mph   NA   Clear
6:53 AM, Thu 4 January 2018   41°   28°   60%   30.13in   10mi   Unl   NNW 7mph   NA   Clear
5:53 AM, Thu 4 January 2018   42°   28°   58%   30.1in   10mi   Unl   NW   7mph   NA   Clear
4:53 AM, Thu 4 January 2018   43°   32°   65%   30.09in   10mi   Unl   NNW 14mph   NA   Few Clouds

[markinnaples]

I had 32 for almost an hour and a half off and on in Golden Gate Estates last night, 36 was predicted. Even using the Brunt equation I only expected 35.2. For the poster worried about mango flowers at 38; I had 35.5 for an hour last month when I had rosigold flowers and now they are pea sized fruit. A lot depends on the length of time of the freeze.

[GrassFlats]

Was at 32 for 8 hours in Lake Mary .....with final low of 30 for a few hours....really weird as temp hit 32 around midnight and stayed there for hours on end until it hit 30 for a few hours before sunrise....

[Galka]

We probably had 27 or less before the sunrise. Pretty windy today.

[dwfl]

I had 32 for almost an hour and a half off and on in Golden Gate Estates last night, 36 was predicted. Even using the Brunt equation I only expected 35.2. For the poster worried about mango flowers at 38; I had 35.5 for an hour last month when I had rosigold flowers and now they are pea sized fruit. A lot depends on the length of time of the freeze.

Yikes Mark! Hang in there... another day or two

[baccarat0809]

Was at 32 for 8 hours in Lake Mary .....with final low of 30 for a few hours....really weird as temp hit 32 around midnight and stayed there for hours on end until it hit 30 for a few hours before sunrise....

I live in one city over from ya in Longwood, and WeatherUnderground registered us at 27 this 7AM.  I moved my potted plants indoors a few days ago but lost my bananas, mangos and papayas.  My citrus seemed to fare ok as they are small and close to the ground and I covered them up, and my pineapples, which are right next to my house and i ran an electric heater over the patch last night and covered them seemed ok - temp around the heater was at 41 this am so hopefully i saved them, but will be back at it tonight trying to keep them warm.

My Florida Prince Peach took an absolute beating last night too and dropped all of its leaves - hopefully that will come back

[knlim000]

base on my own experience at my place which I went thru 29F two weeks ago, I noticed that the plants that get the morning sunrise sun does not get damaged even when it drop down to 29F.  The mango tree that got burned was the one that is in shades in the morning, even though it gets sun later after 12pm.

[WGphil]

I just finished covering up as I expect with clear sky's and temps dropping it likely means frost.

Even if it isn't as cold it can frost things.

I have flowers on small trees i could cover and big ones I cannot. Compare those with the ones that aren't in flower so should be a learning experience.

[zands]

So cold that the green iguanas are falling off the trees they like to climb. They stiffen up and fall off. Also so cold the birds are wearing little mittens to pull worms out of the ground.

[BohicaBob]

It's so cold the birds hope to get warm on my cats ... 

[StPeteMango]

42 in south St. Pete at 5:30 a.m. today, but my phone said with wind chill it was 34. About the same expected Friday morning. Trees look okay, but the damage, if any, will show up in a few days. The panicles were just forming on several mango trees, with the Pickering in full bloom.

[zands]

It's so cold the birds hope to get warm on my cats ... 

Napping cats are solar collection devices that can warm up birds. Garden ornament cats are an unknown.

[palmcity]

So cold that the green iguanas are falling off the trees they like to climb. They stiffen up and fall off. Also so cold the birds are wearing little mittens to pull worms out of the ground.

Only a few invasive iguana that i've seen in Martin County but they have reached this far north and I am not pleased with my little lizards being eaten by the bigger faster iguana. Also, the possibility of eating mango when bigger leads me to desiring there removal.

You tube has some cleaning and cooking videos if you can get them while stunned by the cold for easy removal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6sJsb1jJs How to clean... Very graphic video if unable to gut a fish... etc.... do not watch this....

[achetadomestica]

So cold that the green iguanas are falling off the trees they like to climb. They stiffen up and fall off. Also so cold the birds are wearing little mittens to pull worms out of the ground.

Only a few invasive iguana that i've seen in Martin County but they have reached this far north and I am not pleased with my little lizards being eaten by the bigger faster iguana. Also, the possibility of eating mango when bigger leads me to desiring there removal.

You tube has some cleaning and cooking videos if you can get them while stunned by the cold for easy removal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6sJsb1jJs How to clean... Very graphic video if unable to gut a fish... etc.... do not watch this....

Iguanas don't eat small lizards
mangos are a different story
https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/iguanas-feeding

[zands]

So cold that the green iguanas are falling off the trees they like to climb. They stiffen up and fall off. Also so cold the birds are wearing little mittens to pull worms out of the ground.

Only a few invasive iguana that i've seen in Martin County but they have reached this far north and I am not pleased with my little lizards being eaten by the bigger faster iguana. Also, the possibility of eating mango when bigger leads me to desiring there removal.

You tube has some cleaning and cooking videos if you can get them while stunned by the cold for easy removal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6sJsb1jJs How to clean... Very graphic video if unable to gut a fish... etc.... do not watch this....

In 33321 we have had larger curly tail lizards drive out the smaller ones over a five year period. That was a gruesome video of skinning an iguana for gringos to eat and to amuse n entertain them. I heard gringo voices in English in the background. I will pass on eating iguana until I am ship wrecked on a tropical island. But I would eat them.

Gutting fish...I do not mind. Gutted large frozen sardines last week that I bought at Broward Meat and Fish. Eaten as sashimi.

[palmcity]

So cold that the green iguanas are falling off the trees they like to climb. They stiffen up and fall off. Also so cold the birds are wearing little mittens to pull worms out of the ground.

Only a few invasive iguana that i've seen in Martin County but they have reached this far north and I am not pleased with my little lizards being eaten by the bigger faster iguana. Also, the possibility of eating mango when bigger leads me to desiring there removal.

You tube has some cleaning and cooking videos if you can get them while stunned by the cold for easy removal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6sJsb1jJs How to clean... Very graphic video if unable to gut a fish... etc.... do not watch this....

Iguanas don't eat small lizards
mangos are a different story
https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/iguanas-feeding

[Quigley shoots Dobkin, O'Flynn and Marston before they can even aim their guns, then walks up to the dying Marston] I said I never had much use for one. Never said I didn't know how to use it...........(Marston lacking language fluency, succumbed to Quigley)...
 
"Iguanas don't eat small lizards" is False. Some iguana eat lizards like the Black Spinytail Iguana... The iguana I saw this fall in my yard was not green but probably the Black Spinytail.

3 listed species in this report of Iguana Invasion:     http://www.iguanainvasion.com/iguanas_lizards.html
Black Spinytail Iguana = "CARNIVORES, they WILL EAT OTHER LIZARDS, sea turtle eggs and hatchlings, bird eggs and nestlings. They also take over the burrows of other animals including Gopher Tortoises. The Black Spinytail will hunt through your garbage cans for food, then hiss at you if you attempt to stop them. "

[Alejandro45]

Palmcity you are right spinytailed iguanas are predatory. BUT for the sake of context GREEN iguanas were the topic of conversation and they are more inclined to eat a most insects and snails.

Ctenosaura and Iguana are similarly related but about as much as a tortoise is to a turtle.

Ctenosaura will dig deep burrows of their own and can avoid the cold for a long time. They are extremely aware of their surroundings and fast as heck. Good luck getting rid of those beasts. Don’t worry your trash cans are safe  the moment you walk up on them they are gone. I would much prefer iguanas than raccoons raiding my trash, they are not up at night opening lids like coons.