I don't want to say for sure yet but I suspect that based on what I have seen from the winter of 2008/2009 and the winter of 2009/2010 we may be going into a cooling trend here in Fl. I am not trying to make any statements on climate change or get into any discussion on it. I am a professional landscaper in addition to keeping reptiles outdoors here. I have a pretty good feel for what the weather is going to do as far as patterns go and yes weather does come in patterns and it is still a bit early to tell for sure. However if you were to ask me about planting mangos or avocados or papayas in the Orlando area right now (all of which do reasonably well here although not like south fl.) I would advise against it for a few years if you were buying from a nursery and I would advise that you watch them really close if you were growing your own from seed. I would say the same for starfruit trees as well which are actually more cold tolerant and I am an artist at growing starfruits beyond their range. For the record I am only sure one of my three starfruit trees is alive for sure. One is most likely dead (bad fruit no great loss.) and the jury is still out on a third.

I am not sure about in Orlando right now but I had a healthy population of brown anoles (A. sagrei) at my house north of there. I saw one juvenile after the freeze and have not seen that one or anymore since. I am sure they are not gone but I have never seen them get knocked down this badly.

[ Show Entire Thread ]