Look at the weather station we stayed somewhat consistent with mid 20's throughout the whole month except for the balming 54.64 degrees on 1/1/11. Preciptation has all been in the form of snow with again a slight bit of rain on 1/1/11. I just finished with checking a few greens to see if any ice has developed underneath the snow cover and from where I checked I'm not seeing any. Last year at this time we were chipping away at 6" of ice on 1 green as well as ice on 8, 9, and 18. I continue to keep the fingers crossed and hope that this winter keeps moving along and we have no such circumstances this year. I feel we are getting close to being clear though as usually February and then when we get into March we can see some warm up moments to thaw threating conditions. Different turfs have different tolerances under ice cover, Poa being the least tolerant. Poa can survive roughly around 30 days under continuous ice cover where as bentgrass can survive for more than 60 days. Even though we are believing that we are in the clear it doesn't mean that we are going to stop monitoring. Included here is a picture of 8 green where I removed some snow to check for any ice:
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| That one dark patch is a small area of ice accumulation but nothing like last year where the ice was 4" thick and about a 15 foot diameter circle. |