I don't recall the trees losing their leaves like this in past storms.

[rzemanfl]

My yard in Pinellas looks like it is January. Will the trees survive this early, hurricane induced Fall?

I have to go to bed soon, exhausted from cleanup, re-positioning possessions, fixing fence that blew over, helping friends. I will check for responses tomorrow.

[teach1st]

1. Sleep well

I recall a category 1 in Hawai'i that swept the leaves off of the trees in the mountains, turning the island from green to brown.

The trees survive.

[rzemanfl]

4. Thank you. n/t

[Warpy]

2. Yes. It's the effect of all the salt water being blown through the air

It used to happen on Cape Cod when a hurricane or other big storm would come through. The day after the storm, trees looked OK, the day after that, the leaves were brown and the day after that, the trees were bare. They leafed out fine the following year.

Growth ring will be a little smaller this year.

[rzemanfl]

5. That also explains why every window needs washing. It is one of my projects today. n/t

[rzemanfl]

7. It ocurred to me that in prior storms we had a lot of rain.

Irma was pretty dry in this neck of the woods. Thanks again.

[mahigan]

3. Most should be OK

I'm not familiar with your specific problem but I have lots of experience with trees losing foliage as a result of extreme weather events etc. For example, this year we had a huge tent caterpillar outbreak combined with a drought. The caterpillars stripped the trees and they came back very poorly due to the lack of rain. Most of these trees will come back next spring given decent weather and no caterpillars.

Trees store the energy required to leaf out in the trunks and healthy trees can usually manage to leaf out twice or even more if necessary. The problem arises when the trees are previously stressed due to age, injury, insects,weather and/or diseases. Those trees may not have enough stored reserves to leaf out under anything but ideal conditions and, even then, they may not make it. In my experience, I wouldn't expect losses to be more than 10% unless spring conditions are absolutely horrible. Losses should be well under that if conditions are generally favourable.

Good luck.

[rzemanfl]

6. Thank you. The biggest tree in our yard is not all that healthy.

It is a Chinese Elm that is probably 60 plus years old. It lost a lot of the top in one of the 2004 storms and the side that faces the Gulf lost all its leaves back then. If it doesn't leaf out in the spring I will have to have it taken down. It shades the whole backyard. We would miss it but wouldn't have to worry about it coming down on the house in a storm anymore. The City Arborist gave it 5-7 years to live about 15 years ago.

The other trees should be fine. I appreciate your knowledgeable response.