The first hard freeze, or killing frost, of the fall has ended the growing season for warm-weather crops across Huntsville, Alabama.
The National Weather Service in Huntsville, Alabama classified the cold weather Sunday night and Monday morning as a hard freeze.
“If there’s anybody that had any tomatoes to make it this far, they got taken care of Sunday night,” said Mike Reeves, Morgan County extension coordinator for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.
According to the weather service, temperatures dipped as low as 21 degrees in some areas — cold enough to kill or render dormant most warm-weather crops.
Meteorologist Lauren Nash said the weather service would suspend its frost-and-freeze warnings until spring, judging that most or all warm-weather crops already have been impacted.
The weekend cold snap was not the first freeze of the year. Meteorologist Jennifer Saari said the temperature dropped to freezing or below at least three times in November.
In general, a hard freeze means the temperature dropped below 28 degrees for at least three hours.
“We’ve had some light frosts, but this is the first killer freeze of the year,” said Bill Strain, owner of Strain & Sons Nursery in Athens.
The possibility of even colder winter weather, combined with wind later in the season, had workers at Strain & Sons closing up greenhouses with 200-by-34-foot plastic sheeting Monday.
Strain said his plants were not damaged by the weekend cold spell, but the plastic would protect them if the temperature drops into the teens for extended periods. "Cold, combined with wind, tends to dry the plants out." he said.
The first killing freeze of the year was slightly later this year than last year, but still within norms, according to Reeves. The first killing freeze typically comes around Nov. 1, he said.
More important than the cold snap is that plants had significantly more rain over the summer than they did the year before.
“All of the plants are going into the winter in a better state, because they are not stressed by drought,” Reeves said.
While the freeze means the end for warm-weather plants, others, such as winter wheat, rye grass, onions and radishes, are unaffected. They will continue to grow throughout the winter, Reeves said.
Source: decaturdaily.com