Humboldt Frost
Looks like the first decent frost of the season, at least for the center of Eureka. I thought we might have had a good one a couple days ago from the feel of it. I can usually tell if it's frosty outside just from how it feels inside the house. Was only a spotty frost the other day, though.
The main way I tell if it's frosty, for sure, is looking out the front window of the house at my truck. Frost shows up well, even in the dark, on my truck. If I don't see frost on the truck, then I have to wait until daybreak so I can look at the roofs of neighboring houses. There's one house just a couple spaces to the northeast behind ours that will have frost on it even if no one else's does.
I believe that house is Jaime's house. She was a local maintenance gardener for a while. For some reason her roof will be the first [and last] one to hold frost on it. That's usually the first place to look if my truck doesn't show any.
Like I said, I can usually get an idea if it's cold enough for frost just by how it feels inside the house. One thing I check is my pillow. When I'm laying in bed, even though I might not feel that cold, I can sense the air is cold. I reach over and touch the pillow next to my head. If it feels noticeably cold, it's cold and likely frosty.
Funny thing about frosty mornings, though, is I seem to feel warmer than some non- frosty mornings. I've been trying to figure out for years why that is. I'd like to think it's because it's not as damp. I've theorized for some time that most of the moisture in the air freezes and turns to frost and, since it's not so damp with water taken out of the air, I feel warmer.
That makes sense to me, except I'm not sure it's true because checking the humidity shows the air being more humid than on some foggy, damp days. I checked again this morning and, at 32 degrees, it was at 100% humidity according to weather.com.
It could be because of the way they determine humidity and maybe temperature skews the results as far as what I'm looking for. Took a meteorology class at C/R years ago and we learned a bit about that but I don't remember anything in regards temperature vs. humidity. I'm sure there's something going on along that line, though, otherwise how could I feel so much warmer even though the humidity is so high.
Oh well, plenty of time to think about that. One thing I like about frost is it gives me an excuse to take my time getting going in the morning. After all, can't mow frosted lawns.
I love having an excuse.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 7:17 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
First frost here in McKinleyville, too. I only have a couple of plants that need to be sheltered, guess I'll have to work on that today.
Along that line, one thing I like about the frost is it can keep some plants under control- nasturtiums, for one.
Of course, it takes a hard frost to do it and this one is nowhere nears cold enough, but a good one kills off a number of plants. We have nasturtiums that pretty much grow wild in our back yard. If we don't get a good, hard frost every now and then to kill them off, they can take over the whole yard.
Yeah, I pretty much adhere to the rule that whatever survives, stays, and I don't have to baby anything that way, but this yeqr I got a couple of lemon trees. They're little, and I figure they'll need to be brought in.
Any idea if they would survive if I put them in the ground?
I don't know about young lemon trees. I suppose they might not be so hardy. Then again, the biggest lemons I've ever seen in my life came from some lemon trees growing in Mckinleyville, and they were outside, except they were fully established.
I've always been a bit surprised at how well lemons do up here as I always considered them a tropical type plant like oranges.
I'd probably wait until danger of frost was over if it was my decision.
I'll take your advice. If they have a chance of doing well I will plant them in the spring. I didn't know anyone had them growing outside up here.
Happy Thanksgiving, Fred.
I'll have to say they had those lemon trees in a good spot, though. They lived just north of Azalea Park on the southern exposure of that hill. Biggest lemons I'd ever seen.
The wife had a small potted lemon tree at the time so I took three of those big lemons from Mckinleyville and brought them home. Then I took some pins and attached the big lemons to her plant as best I could to make it look realistic.
Didn't exactly fool her. When she came home I pointed out that her lemon tree finally grew some lemons. She couldn't tell just what I'd done but she knew the lemons weren't really from her tree.
Oh well. I tried.
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