Thursday, February 3, 2011

Bougainvillea and Ice

I took this picture at 10 AM today, February 3, 2011. By sunset a little over half of the ice had melted. The high at TUS airport was 38F, about the same as here.
The bougainvillea looked great at Christmas. But then near the beginning of the year there were two hard freeze events that took their tolls on the leaves and flowers. So I wasn't trying to protect these branches. Instead, I have a hodgepodge of covers and wraps and Christmas lights to try to protect the lower parts of the plants. I watered them last night, and will again tonight. I'm not sure what happened to the one irrigation line. It must have frozen during the night, and began spraying a fine mist straight up. The wind carried the mist onto these branches. In the top middle of the picture, against the brick background, you can see streaks of the airborne droplets.
It looks like the brunt of the next arctic outbreak will stay east of the Continental Divide. At least I hope so. But next week once again I'll have a wary eye on the weather stations along the I-80 corridor in Southern Wyoming for the first confirmation of sure trouble.

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