Weather Chat - 2023

blown_dry · 2023-02-04T23:18:06+00:00

A few hard frosts lately, but spring is taking hold for sure.

calico20hill

SteveM 7" More rain then Seattle! Wowzers! THat does deserve respect! Congratulations on being out of the draught...I hope you will have some good years before the next swing one way or another.

Emilyp

Woke up to this. At least 6 inches of snow already and it isn't going to stop until this afternoon. Sure is pretty though.

AndreaB

Emilyp Yuck! Time for that to go away.
Hopefully you’ll get some heat and it will all melt.

Krista

We have hovered in the forties and fifties with nighttime temps in the high thirties, and not a lot of precipitation here in Seattle. I love the snow and part of me wishes this was our back yard, Emilyp!, it’s beautiful but I hope it doesn’t linger too long or inhibit your dahlia life!

Teddahlia

We had about an inch of snow overnight but it is melting very quickly.

Juliarugula

We have snow predicted this afternoon also. Temps above freezing though so it should melt fast. The weather forecast would suggest we’re looking at a couple of very wet upcoming weeks. I’m getting tired of gray skies. sure would be nice to do some weeding and clean up in sunshine.

blown_dry

Seems like the atmospheric firehose hit "Northern California" and missed us here in "Upstate California" this time around. I saw that the San Leandro Dahlia Society cancelled their in-person meeting in favor of Zoom due to extreme weather. I remember years where it rained for the entire month of April, so I'm prepared to grow moss for a while yet. 🙂

calico20hill

"Traditionally" I start putting my pots of growing dahlias out during the day time starting around 1 April. I bring the in at night (They are on wheeled racks) or when hail is predicted. I really want to start this but everything is behind and mostly what is ready to get some sunshine on it is fragile newly hatched seedlings. No way can I put them out yet! One good hailstone would smash the whole plant. THe tubers I potted up weeks ago are just starting to grow out of the soil. (Those were the "Iffy" tubers and I was just giving them a chance to grow if they were up to it) At least I am having something nice happening and I get excited when I see each one sprouting up. I don't know how much colder it is this year vs other years of whether I am following a Puget Sound weather pattern still...I'm just dreaming of those soft spring days when plants are happy in the sunshine. I have some nice pots of sprouted seeds growing and I keep reminding myself that this is supposed to be my focus now. But there are all the other pots of 2nd and 3rd year seedlings to get ready for my own Salish Test Garden.

It is 39 degrees as evening approaches with clear patches of sky between sleet and ice showers. I am glad everyone is still inside tonight!

AKWindWatcher

LeeAnn posted something earlier on IG about (and I'm paraphrasing here) giving yourself space to not feel so pressured to get everything done right now. I'm taking that to heart. Normally, I have so many potted tubers going in my cabin by the end of April, I barely have room to walk. This year, given how much snow needs to melt, I'm holding off on starting tubers until I can actually clean off my gas meter without having to lay on my stomach & reach down. It feels odd but, at the same time, less stressful. I expect I'll be putting my tubers outside and arranging around snow piles still in mid-May.

blown_dry

@mr_blown_dry tells me the energy storage system went into 'storm watch' mode yesterday afternoon. The power company is keeping a weather eye, and now the gusts have arrived. I hope the back fence makes it and the roof stays on!

Teddahlia

Weather is what you get and climate is what you expect to get. In your case, they do not seem to be on the same page.

calico20hill

We had a crazy storm come through last night...not sure where it came from as it was warm strong winds, not the potential snow,frost, sleet that was forecast. Power outages in our neighborhood but we had no problem. It is still 10 degrees warmer then what we were expecting.

Paige

calico20hill what’s strange, is we (puget sound) were supposed to get a strong wind storm last night, and didn’t. Wonder if the storm went way further south than anticipated?😅

calico20hill

Paige It look like yours might be still on the way. I always read the forcast for my old home and friends on Vashon Island, as well as my current one here N of Portland, O.

blown_dry

The back fence made it and the roof stayed on! But the gusts did rock the house.

calico20hill

blown_dry Hurray that you still have a roof and a fence!

AKWindWatcher

This evening I realized that I'm an idiot. The days have been warmer so I've been opening up my loft window to let in some fresh air. Not thinking AT ALL about what else might come in with the air. Queue spider mites. Ugh....

MIDahlias

What do you think the lowest evening temperature potted up "plants" can take without being stunted. In SEMI we are expecting temps in the 80's next week with evening lows in the 50's. The following week evening lows in the 40's. Too Low?

AKWindWatcher

MIDahlias - 40s is actually pretty standard summertime lows here in my part of AK. The dahlias handle it just fine. I think, especially with the high temps you have, the dahlias won't even blink.

calico20hill

I would take advice on when to plant according to soil temperatures with a grain of salt. In The Seattle area, if we waited for the soil be that temperature we would have been planting in August. However, the soil was usually frost free from sometime in April through late October.. Setting my plants out in mid to late May *When ever the soil was DRY enough....worked fine even if the soil temp was cooler, I pre-started them all in pots in my greenhouse so they were a good size when set out.Usually there were a few blooming by the end ofJUNE and pretty full production of flower from Mid August through first frost around Halloween. I did have mostly sandy loam soil with occasional chunks of clay or big boulders transported and dropped from the prehistoric glaciers and floods. That soil was ever so much nicer to work with then this Oregon red clay.

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