Frost Adv Extened to Southern OK at 3:53 AM

13 years ago

Last night I looked incredulously at the Frost Advisory for much of OK that did not include my county and said to myself (and to OkieTim) that I bet they'd issue us an "urgent" Frost Advisory at 3 or 4 a.m., and so they have. [I've had so many late freezes or frosts here in recent years that I usually issue my own personal freeze advisory to myself by 3 p.m. on a day that seems likely to be headed into a very cold night!]

If you are in southcentral or southeastern OK and didn't have a Frost Advisory when you went to sleep last night, well....you've got one now. It says that local conditions were supportive of frost formation by 3 a.m. and that frost will continue to form through least at 8 a.m. The Frost Advisory for southern OK is in effect through 9 a.m.

I covered up almost everything last night, so I am not terribly worried about anything, and even if the floating row cover fails to prevent frost or freeze damage, I've got back-up tomato plants. I may leave the row cover on all day today and tonight because now I'm not sure I trust Tuesday night's forecast low.

If you are awake early and see this and you're in southern OK, you can try hosing off the frost before sunlight hits your plants, but the bigger issue will be freeze damage if you hit 32.

It currently is 31 here.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Enhanced Webpage of Norman Office of the NWS

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Comments (4)

oldbusy1
13 years ago
Well, i did'nt get up and look. I dont think we got any as the plants still look ok.

After the close to 5" of rain we received sunday/monday i would of created more of a mess trying to cover everything up.

I still have more plants, some i just transplanted this weekend. Maybe this weekend i can get the rest of my garden planted.

Some of the squash and cucumbers are not the best looking and need planted soon.

The shade cloth seems to be working too well and i removed a portion of it this morning. I have several sections of it and decided to pull one section to allow more sunlight in to maybe help the plants toughen up. I may have to remove 1 more section.

I had a feeling last night when i seen the temperatures getting close to the low 40's that there was a pretty good possibility of a frost. But as i stated earlier i did'nt get up early to see.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
13 years ago
Busy1, I wondered if you'd get that frost over there.

We had it here, but I was ready for it.

You got five inches? Oh man, that's too much at once. You're never going to dry out enough to plant. We got 2.7" and I was sinking down to my ankles in the mud as I put floating row covers over everything yesterday afternoon with light rain falling. I was cold and miserable and had shoes full of mud by the time I made it back to the house. I don't think I'll be able to do anything other than maybe some weeding of the raised beds for the next few days, but I have to wait until at least tomorrow for the pathways to dry out enough to walk in them without sinking into the mud.

We needed rain, but so much at once isn't necessarily helpful.

On the bright side, there's a foot or two of water in the ponds again so that's great for the wildlife.

Dawn
oldbusy1
13 years ago
Yes, i'm thankful for the water. I was just worried sick it would'nt rain here this spring and fill the ponds back up.

my garden dries out pretty fast. I should be able to get in it this weekend. I need to get in it today and pick some broccoli and check the cabbage.
soonergrandmom
13 years ago
Busy1 - Ooh, broccoli already. You are way ahead of me because mine isn't even big enough to head up yet.

Dawn - I had a message from a friend of mine that just lives a couple of miles from the mesonet station and she said she had heavy frost this morning. She started hosing it down early but didn't know if she had saved it. So, yes, it is amazing what a few miles can mean. I monitor temps on two sites and they were 6 degrees apart before I went to bed. The warmer one was closer to me and the mesonet station was closer to her.