The last 10 years for me have been along the freeze line here in IL.   which means we spend most of the winter just above freezing, with lots of snaps below and above that cold mark.  Snow normally only last a few days and its always damp.
But to the comment about the plants budding to soon.  Its very common here to have an early budding followed by super cold. most plants seem to not care.  Many season the maples and ash may bud and freeze off 3 or 4 times with no ill effects (in fact it increases the maply syrp flows)  Fruit trees here get frozen of after flowering about 1 in 5 years and will then of course be bare  but seem perfectly fine afterwards.
As for bees  its really hard on them,  the comment was we lose them in March was right on the money here,  but its because we get an early pollen flow  and then the bees brood up.  stores are to far away and the bees need to decide to keep brood warm or move and eat.   They always pick wrong.

Charles

     On Friday, January 1, 2016 7:54 PM, Peter Loring Borst <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 

 Randy:
> It's more complicated than that.  See my article in this month's ABJ, and next month's when it come out.

Great article which covers this topic exhaustively. If you don't get the ABJ, it's definitely worth it. The digital version is very inexpensive and comes out weeks before the paper one. 

PLB

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