Easter eve cold snap
Sleet falling on Easter eve
It was a day for the record books in Austin. Our normal high temperature at this time of year is 78 degrees. Yesterday, temps hovered in the high 30s for most of the day and overnight dipped close to freezing (but not quite) in my central Austin garden.
It was 36 degrees around 9 pm last night.
Around 8 pm it began to sleet. The ice pellets didn’t last on the warm sidewalks, but they accumulated for a little while on the wooden Adirondacks out back.
Off and on all Easter eve, we heard the hissing of sleet hitting the skylight. Ssssssss. Somehow the Easter bunny made it through all that weird weather, and now the kids are bouncing off the walls on a sugar high. While the garden looks like it came through our cold snap just fine, I haven’t ventured out this morning. Since I don’t have any rosy spring photos for Easter, I’ll refer you to snowy bluebonnets at Prairie Point, Bill’s blog in North Texas, about 4 hours north of Austin. I wonder if this is what folks in the Hill Country west of Austin are seeing on their bluebonnets this morning too.
We have a word for that kind of weather here in Upstaste New York: April.
Seriously, I hope damage to your plants is minimal and that everything bounces back so we can enjoy more pix of them.
🙂 Our April weather is very changeable too, but almost never this chilly. We go more from the 50s to the 90s, rather than down to the 30s. In fact, it’s supposed to be in the 80s again in a couple of days. Summer is sure to follow closely on April’s heels. —Pam
Happy Easter, Pam!
We seem to have hit 34º and not gone lower near the house, although there was some ice on roofs and cars. Philo had covers on the vegetable garden, and we dragged the tender & tropical pots into the garage. I don’t see damage here this morning, but haven’t seen any numbers for the peach-growing areas out toward Fredericksburg.
Ellis Hollow, an April freeze in Texas isn’t so much about flowers in home gardens, it means trees full of developing fruit in orchards, strawberry farms ready for berry-picking festivals, and farmers counting on tomato harvests. Even the ultra-cautious pecan leaves had unfurled already – I don’t know if there was damage to the pecan crop or not.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Hmm, I hope those Fredericksburg peaches came through unscathed. —Pam
Pam… We never got above 32 degrees yesterday… today, it was warmer, but not much warmer. I had not looked around yesterday… too afraid of what I might see. I have a lot of company though, as there isn’t anything that anyone can do about this weather, except ride it out and then see what needs to be done in the garden. Here’s to warmer day! Here’s to May!
Carol at May Dreams Gardens.
I hope you get your warm May weather soon, Carol. Here in the hot zone, I’m content with an unseasonably chilly April. —Pam
We did not actually fall below freezing here. My thermometer did not record the overnight low because it was above the previous nights and I had not reset it. However when we went into town on Sunday we saw that car tops and rooftops were still white with snow, so it must have been colder there.
The local news reported a little snowfall (no accumulation) even at Austin’s airport. Amazing for April. —Pam
It’s still pretty, even in the sleet.
Thanks, Chuck, but can you see anything? Hey, maybe that landscape lighting does make a difference! —Pam