Originally Posted by bigdog

Taylor,

Knoxville's airport (TYS), our official recording station, has reached 11F for an absolute minimum low this year, and 12F on another occasion. I am at a higher elevation than TYS, and in a bit of a valley on the ridge, so I get cold-air drainage in addition to the colder temps from higher elevation. My absolute minimum low has been around 6F (twice), with a couple of 7F mornings also, but my thermometer is not in a good placement. I need to set it up correctly for more accurate temperature readings. I think I'm actually a couple degrees warmer than the temps I've recorded, but still a couple degrees colder than the airport. We are a long-term zone 7a here, really bordering on zone 7b. The last five winters, assuming we don't reach single digits this winter, have been zone 8a winters. This winter, we've had 2 days (non-consecutive) with a high below freezing, last winter was only one day, and the winter before that we had zero days with a high below freezing.

With bananas, a whole zone makes a huge difference! I mean, they grow Sabal palmettos in VA Beach Taylor, LOL! You guys can grow quite a bit more than I can here.