The Sun is Killing Me: Sleet pics

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Sleet pics

Now, I realize that anyone that lives in a more Northerly climate will look at these photos and say to themselves 'What is the big deal here? There are only a few ice pellets on the ground. Those guys down in Austin are wimps!!' But, any type of frozen precipitation is kind of a big deal down here, so bear with me as I post pics of the sleet that fell in my yard last night...

It is in the 30's this morning with a North Wind blowing and the wind chill is at 26 degrees.

Sleet last night as the strong Northerly 30-35 mph winds blew the frozen pellets into my windows (I was shivering as I was snapping this photo, forgive me if it is a little blurry):

A blanket of sleet began to cover the lawn turning the backyard white:

And some pics from this morning. Some of the sleet melted since it was 81 degrees yesterday and the ground was still quite warm:

2 comments:

Cindy, MCOK said...: Bonnie, as I commented to Pam, earlier today we were actually colder than gardeners in Vermont and New York state. No sleet/snow here, just rain overnight and into the morning. We needed the moisture as I know y'all did, too. I hope it melts and soaks in soon!; December 10, 2008 at 9:07 AM
Annie in Austin said...: We had enough on the car to make a Sleetman for Twitter but he didn't last long, Lee17.

We had frost again Thursday morning- guess you did, too?

Annie at the Transplantable Rose; December 11, 2008 at 8:53 AM

Zone What?

Seattle to Olympia is Gardening Hardiness Zone 8.

Zone 8: -12 to -7 C (10 to 20 F)

Austin is Gardening Hardiness Zone 8-9

Zone 8: -12 to -7 C (10 to 20 F)
Zone 9: -7 to -1 C (20 to 30 F)

The USDA map was updated this year - 2012. Some zones have shifted from the previous version.

See the current map here:

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

Although both Austin and Seattle are in similiar zone hardiness, their climates could not be more different! Temps top out in the 80's in the summer in Seattle, where in Austin they can top 110 and stay in the 100's for months on end. The same plants that enjoy the Seattle maritime climate will fry in a second in the semi-desert that is Central Texas.

Learn about the heat zone map here:

http://www.ahs.org/publications/heat_zone_map.htm

Check out the AHS Heat Zone map here:

http://www.ahs.org/pdfs/05_heat_map.pdf

Past Garden Quotes of the Month

"The fair-weather gardener, who will do nothing except when the wind and weather and everything else are favorable, is never master of his craft."-- Henry Ellacombe
"The trouble with gardening is that it does not remain an avocation. It becomes an obsession." -- Phyllis McGinley
"The way of cultivation is not easy. He who plants a garden plants happiness." --Chinese Proverb
"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." --Greek proverb
'Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.' - Albert Einstein
"Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden." ~Orson Scott Card
"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large Garden." ~Abraham Cowley, The Garden, 1666
"A weed is but an unloved flower." ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox
"Last night, there came a frost, which has done great damage to my garden.... It is sad that Nature will play such tricks on us poor mortals, inviting us with sunny smiles to confide in her, and then, when we are entirely within her power, striking us to the heart." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebookse
"Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination." ~Mrs. C.W. Earle, Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden, 1897 (Thanks, Jessica)
"When one of my plants dies, I die a little inside, too." ~Linda Solegato
"In gardens, beauty is a by-product. The main business is sex and death." ~Sam Llewelyn
"Plant carrots in January and you'll never have to eat carrots." ~Author Unknown