Europe reports the coldest october weather in 50 years, due to a super cold front from Arctic that came practically 12 hours after having a 30°C (86°F) the day before. Many people still trapped in mountain explorations are reported missing, several of them were trapped by 5 foots of snow in the mountains and so far we have 4 dead, all of them tourists, all of them from Austria.
Germany and Austria are no better. Alp regions and areas are under heavy snow cover and will probably recover in March at best. And so is a good part of Europe as well.
95% of natural vegetation has green leaves (as it should be at this time of the year) and are undergoing unbelievable amount of strees...
Great news for 1st year banana hardiness experiments, ay? Grand Nain has survived its first real snow today (and so has Pahari Kela, after what I recovered it inside!!! - safety measures), no damage, minimal temps around 34°F and no damage to leaves (I should also mention that these temperatures are constant, so it's just 34 to 40F all day and night-long), P-stem or what-so-ever - no damage or signs of anything bad....
I should also mention that it hasn't seen the sun for like 5 days. Rain/rain-snow all the time, day and night.
Even though I think we are lucky. If this came in January, we would probably survive (zone - 1.5) winters that come once in 50 or so years.
Cheers from waterland!
Btw. the snow didn't have a chance. It practically melted down as soon as it touched the ground.
But other regions weren't so lucky. 4+ foot.