Frost or a cold spell accompanied by a cutting wind can impact severely on a budding Aloe inflorescence. For species growing in cold winter regions there is a short, critical, early stage in its development when flowering may abort totally, as happened to this withered Aloe striata.
A slightly later, second panicle may come through unscathed, otherwise blooming may be a year away. The timing of such a cold front can be dramatic: one plant’s flowering is obliterated, its neighbour's buds appearing a few days earlier ot later completely unaffected (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; Reynolds, 1974; Jeppe, 1969; iNaturalist).