Ice...?

Cold!

I planted a fig tree about a week ago, not knowing it was going to get down into the low teen's.... I just hope it survives.

Got it covered with hay, and with a hay filled bucket at night.

Sigh. Probably gonna die anyway.

If it's a hardy fig it'll survive. Surround it with buckets of warm water at night as well.

Turkey brown fig.

The single leaf that was on it died during the first unexpected frost the other day.

Since then, it's been covered as well as I can...

I guess we'll see.

FWIW, warm water freezes faster than cold water...

Resistance: That's an urban legend. Warm water COOLS faster, but it doesn't freeze any faster.

Once the molecules have slowed down to the same point as the cool water, they don't get any colder any faster.

Try it. Glass of cold water and glass of hot water in the freezer. You'll see for yourself.

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Ge....

Written Nov, 1998 by Monwhea Jeng (Momo),
Department of Physics, University of California

Quote:

Yes — a general explanation

Hot water can in fact freeze faster than cold water for a wide range of experimental conditions. This phenomenon is extremely counterintuitive, and surprising even to most scientists, but it is in fact real. It has been seen and studied in numerous experiments. While this phenomenon has been known for centuries, and was described by Aristotle, Bacon, and Descartes [1—3], it was not introduced to the modern scientific community until 1969, by a Tanzanian high school pupil named Mpemba. Both the early scientific history of this effect, and the story of Mpemba's rediscovery of it, are interesting in their own right — Mpemba's story in particular providing a dramatic parable against making snap judgements about what is impossible. This is described separately below.

The phenomenon that hot water may freeze faster than cold is often called the Mpemba effect. Because, no doubt, most readers are extremely skeptical at this point, we should begin by stating precisely what we mean by the Mpemba effect. We start with two containers of water, which are identical in shape, and which hold identical amounts of water. The only difference between the two is that the water in one is at a higher (uniform) temperature than the water in the other. Now we cool both containers, using the exact same cooling process for each container. Under some conditions the initially warmer water will freeze first. If this occurs, we have seen the Mpemba effect. Of course, the initially warmer water will not freeze before the initially cooler water for all initial conditions. If the hot water starts at 99.9°C, and the cold water at 0.01°C, then clearly under those circumstances, the initially cooler water will freeze first. However, under some conditions the initially warmer water will freeze first: if that happens, you have seen the Mpemba effect. But you will not see the Mpemba effect for just any initial temperatures, container shapes, or cooling conditions.

I hear ya, resistance, but the fact remains that a vulnerable plant surrounded by water, hot or frozen, is buffered such that temperature changes experienced by the plant are less relative to its environment. It's the same principle at work as used by Florida citrus growers, when they spray their trees with water during a freeze. The water/ice that coats the tree provides insulation against colder surrounding temps.

And Asi, in cold climates (zone 6 here in PA) my figs die back to the ground every year but rejuvenate from the roots reliably, producing growth and figs every year anyhow. Just make sure, in that case, that your fig gets full sunlight spring/summer/fall, giving it the best chance for more growth and fruit production next year as well.

just to add.. SNOW or water acts[/s] as a insulater IF the surrounding
air temp is "colder"....
As noted above, Citrus growers "Smoking/freezing" the trees...
Same thing in AK with Sled Dogs,(AND some wild-life), they'll "burro" themsleves into snow/snowbanks, lil caves/dens in the snow keeping them selves warm... Hence; the Igloo..

Tesla: I was aware that if the wood gets killed from freezing that they'd grow back from root. That shouldn't be a problem here (zone 7.)

What worries me is that I planted it two days before it dropped to 14 degrees. I stupidly didn't check the weather first. Got down to 13 last night. Not getting below 30 on the 5 day forecast now, so if it survived it, it should do ok.

Covered with straw during day and straw + straw filled 5 gallon bucket at night. Ground was NOT frozen even right at the surface underneath the straw right as the sun came up on either day, so I have some hope.

Got our first measurable snow yesterday. About 1-2". The latest 1st snow we ever had on record is in March. Forgot what date. We had some single digit lows last weekend.

Snow melted today and tomorrow we are supposed to get thunderstorms. Back into the 50's this weekend :)

My husband saw a moth flying around this evening.

Jim Puplava interviews Evelyn Browning Garriss on the weather, the La Nina effect and the volcanic eruption off Iceland.

http://www.financialsense.com/financial-....

Lots of snow in the PNW this weekend, but it was a sad day for the PNW skiing community. 3 were killed in a side-country avalanche outside Stevens Pass, and a snowboarder was killed in the Alpental side-country after being swept over a cliff in another avalanche.

This is nuts:

Upper Peninsula Fishing Report

Keweenaw Bay: Has no ice so most anglers are casting off Sand Point. A couple coho were caught. Warmer weather is bringing out small boats with electric motors. Anglers had limited success for coho and pike. Bigger boats were launching from the south side launch at the Baraga Marina and catching lake trout near Carla's Restaurant and Old Mission however the launch ramps iced up.

55 and sunny earlier in Hartford today, this time last year we had a foot of snow on the ground and it was in the 20s.

79 here today. 90-something in the greenhouse by the time I got out there and opened the doors. Supposed to be 82 tomorrow then cool off into the 60's.

Thank God for the rain we've had. The ponds are low, but not as low. Slowly making progress.

Found a deer skeleton (a buck) while out bush-hogging. It has been a hard year for the wildlife.

Dead dogwood tree in my yard. Dead red oaks everywhere. Crab apple tree looks pretty bad too.

A week worth of nice slow rain would be most appreciated.

9" of snow at Snoqualmie tonight. Keep it coming!

Just 475 miles south of you, Resistance, and yesterday's high was a sunny 65 degrees. Played golf in a tee-shirt. (Hope we get a little of your snow pack before "winter" is over, or we're going to be a tinder box come summer!)

High today is supposed to be 75 with storms coming in tonight before temps drop back down to the 50 range for a couple of days...

Very windy here with 60 mph gusts with snow squalls. The wind took the large heavy Barbecue and blew it off the deck and all the grates were everywhere. I would not like being in a plane at Boston Logan trying to land in this wind, no way.

In NH on top of Mount Washington, today's peak gust was 101 mph, their gusts are usually double ours at Sea level.

Yesterday was the first day we had the smell of orange blossoms in the air. Spring is arriving a little early this year.

The Terminix man told me that the swarming insects have already shown up around Shreveport and Ruston. That's a month earlier than normal.

A friend and I worked on fencing in my half-acre garden plot at the farm today. It was a beautiful day to be busy outside. Weather is supposed to be nice again tomorrow while we continue with our project. The deer are about ready for something good to eat. They came out to supervise for a bit.

The tulip trees in the neighborhood bloomed last week. The wild plum trees at the farm bloomed out a few days ago. Totally lovely.

Snow level should be right around sea level for the next few days here in western WA.

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_2006938....

Winter finally caught up with us here. Still, no complaints given all the beautiful days we had these past few months.

Locally, the highway departments have been trying to figure out where to store all their extra salt!