How the January freeze impacted the trees

After an icy freeze last winter (2023) brought widespread damage to trees in the area, we looked into whether this year's freeze would have had negative impacts.

(AUSTIN) -- Our mid-January freeze brought temperatures well below freezing throughout Central Texas. After an icy freeze last winter (2023) brought widespread damage to trees in the area, we looked into whether this year's freeze would have had negative impacts.

KXAN Meteorologist Nick Bannin spoke with Valerie Tamburri, an arborist with TreeFolks, about the health of our plants and trees.

KXAN Meteorologist Nick Bannin: So, we just got over our mid-January deep freeze. With our nighttime temperatures dropping into the teens for at least a couple of nights. What potential impact could this have on our area's trees and plants?

Valeria Tamburri, Arborist with Tree Folks: Luckily, I don't think that this freeze should have as big of an impact as the one last year or the year before. Especially since we didn't have that heavy ice weighing down on the trees this year. So, I think that as long as your trees are in pretty good health, and you're still taking care of them after any damage that happened last year, they should be pretty good to go.

Bannin: Are we going to continue to see improvements in the plants and trees that were damaged from our 2023 round of cold to continue to get better during the year this year?

Tamburri: So, if they bounced back with at least a 50% canopy, and you cleaned up any broken limbs or dead limbs, you should know by now that they're recovering pretty well.

Bannin: So you'd say that 2024 is going to be a continued year of recovery for the plants and trees that were damaged in early 2023?

Tamburri: Yeah, I actually think that a lot of the trees did seem to recover already. And I know that we were still in drought stages, so people need to continue to water even their mature trees, you know, throughout the droughts, just to make sure that they stay healthy throughout this winter and the upcoming summer.

Bannin: What are some signs that the trees and plants around your home are suffering from stress and distress, either from the weather from the lack of rainfall or from something else?

Tamburri: The biggest thing that homeowners would probably notice is the lack of leaves in the canopy, of course, during the leaf-on periods. So if you're not back to near 100%, leaf out on your trees, you might be a little bit concerned, and it's probably time to call out an arborist.

Bannin: Now, as we head through the eventual warm-up into spring, for those trees that lost their leaves in the winter, when did they start coming back?

Tamburri: Oh, they should. Some of them will start coming back in February, and then...most of the leaves should be back by March and April.