Clean Up Saturday...

What a Difference a day makes as all day sunshine allows our temperatures to warm back up to 60+ in spots.  This is still well below our average/normal highs (68) and is the 9th straight day below average.

You can see some clouds down over the Gulf but all of the white to our north is snow on the ground, which I highlighted with the yellow line.

Since we warmed up so nicely, I wanted to get the potted plants in my "He-Shed" back outside into the sunshine.  None of the plants seems to suffer from the cold so my two 100 watt light bulbs did the trick.  I did what Dan Gill suggested in today's Advocate, namely to survey your damaged foliage, decide what is NCB (not coming back) and prune only the really dead stuff.   It was pretty obvious in my yard what is NCB.

The begonia on the fence...dead.   The yellow flowering tree along the fence...dead and the inground shrimp plants...dead...or so they seem.    I will give the coming warmer weather a chance to revive these plants.  My variegated ginger was crushed so I began my hack & wrack to remove the uglies.

 The top photo was before the freeze, the middle after the freeze with the bottom taken after my trimming.  I noticed how just a little sunshine brought my violas & pansies back to life.

The center of the Arctic high is finally to our east taking with it the coldest air.  The freeze line has moved to north of Kansas City and St. Louis with Denver and much of Kansas in the 50s.   We should easily jump into the 60s on Sunday with some locations nearing 70.   A weak front arrives on Monday with a few showers, but the cool down behind it will be brief and way less severe.  

The clouds south of the Louisiana coast will return on Sunday as southerly winds bring back the Gulf moisture.  It will feel different tomorrow as the humidity increase along with the temperatures.

As we head towards the last days of February, I see no freeze threat returning to the South Shore.  In fact, unless the East coast upper trough returns, we could be done with freezes south of Lake P.  Generally, March 15th is the day we shoot for regarding the final freeze threat.  So if you're thinking of putting out your tomato plants , I'd hold off for another 10-14 days.

Finally, those of you (like me) tired of all this cold, remember what that warm weather of summer brings.  Yep, 100 days from now the tension begins again.   Put on a sweater and enjoy this coolness because it never lasts long.  Stay tuned!