No disrespect to my friends at Accuweather, but what is happening to our weather forecasts? It seems this winter, they’ve been so wrong so often. I don’t even know how they ever get it right so I’m not giving advice but I just can’t trust the weather forecasts any more.
We can the heat in the greenhouse to come on at a certain time. I can also set it to come on at a certain temp but the lowest I can set it is 60 degrees and it doesn’t need to be that warm in there so why waste the propane?
I set the greenhouse heat to come on if it’s going to be below 35 degrees outside so if the weatherman says 37, I set the heat and that way, I’m allowing a few degrees wiggle room.
Yesterday our weather said it was going to be 37 at 4 a.m., 35 at 5 a.m. and it wasn’t going to be warm enough to turn the heat off til 8 a.m. Vince set the heat to come on at 3:30 a.m. Should have been great.
We worked outside a lot of the day but by about 3 p.m. the temp started dropping and it was dropping 3 or 4 degrees an hour. The wind was blowing and by about 7:00, the temp was down to 37 where it was supposed to be in the upper 40’s. Vince said “It’s going to get way colder tonight than they’re saying. He looks at weather.com and I look at Accuweather so we were both checking the weather and it was still saying the low was going to be 37 but he went out and changed the heater so it would come on then and stay on til about 8 this morning.
I’m glad Vince was paying attention, at 11:15 last night, it was 30.9 outside. Other things on that display: 67.8 in the house, 52% humidity in the house, 95% humidity outside, which is kinda weird for us, and we’ve had a whopping .31″ of rain this month.
Arrowhead Gramma says
I use Weather Underground and find it to be more consistent for my area than Accuweather, Weather Channel or NOAA. The link is: http://www.wunderground.com. Put in your zip code and it will bring up a weather station in your area. Might give it a try for a couple of days.
Judy Laquidara says
The funny thing is when you put in my zip code, the first reporting station I see is the one at our house.
Arrowhead Gramma says
That is really funny.
Stephani in N. TX says
I thought about you when I first saw the temperatures come to a raring low. Just beginning to see tree buds in my yard. I remember in Wichita Falls, being sermonized in the newspaper, about the coming freeze and peach blossom or apple orchard freezes. I hated to see the peach crop go to heck or apples get destroyed. But the news columnist was more dependable in his report than the TV weather. I guess that’s what we get, both living on different parts of the “weather front” area, we might get caught in the bottom-out of the temperature and/or might get some freezing rain etc. Not so much since I moved to Dallas environs, but it sure is cold today!!
Janet B says
What brand of weather station do you have?
Nelle Coursey says
I went with Pat to the disc golf course at around 3 pm. The thermometer on the car said 79 degrees. When we left at around 4 it was 50 degrees!! And it was cold!! I was wearing short sleeves and I got one of the hoodies out of the back of the car and put it on!
Heather Sedlacek says
Our weather said 2-5 inches of snow yesterday. We got 12 inches! I dont know what type of heaters you have but if they are ones that plug in you can get an adapter for the plug that turns them on when the temperature gets below a certain mark. Though by the time it gets that low it might be too cold for your plants already.
Judy Laquidara says
It’s a propane heater and it does have a thermostat but the lowest setting is 60 degrees. We don’t need it to keep it 60 degrees in there . . about 38 – 40 would be great. We would be able to turn it on and off via wifi if we had strong enough internet to reach the greenhouse. So, we have to watch the weather and set it to come on when the temp is going to drop too low and then go off when the temp gets high enough or when the sun is out to warm the greenhouse. By next year, hopefully we’ll have much better internet out here and we’ll be able to put a booster on it that actually works.
dezertsuz says
Texas weather – always not what you expect!