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Spring "Freeze out"


BowMeHunter

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Should also mention the euro weeklies now have most of the region at or below normal straight through into early May. Not to say we can't get a day or two of above normal temps.

Brett Anderson disagrees from his interpretation. Looks seasonable for us and mild looks to be moving in by early May.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/anderson/updated-snow-map-and-weekly-long-range-outlook/63736

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Interesting...

Use of sprinklers can protect vines when temperatures fall to -3.9°C (25°F), if conditions are ideal. Water from the sprinklers supplies heat to the vine-water- atmosphere system. The heat is released as water cools to 0°C (32°F) and then freezes to ice. The most important factor in this situation is the heat of fusion (released as water freezes to ice). A gallon of water releases 300kcal (1200 BTU) of heat as it freezes. Water is also evaporating in the vine-water-atmosphere system. The evaporation of water causes a loss of 2300kcal (9000 BTU) per gallon. Therefore, to maintain a positive heat balance, more water must freeze than evaporates. This amount has been determined to be factor of 7.5 units of water or more for every unit of water that evaporates. This, along with a buffer for the humidity of the air and wind speed (factors which can increase the evaporation rate) is the basis for the sprinkler application rate used in the design of systems. The recommended application rate is 6.9 to 8.2 hectare-millimeters (0.11 to 0.13 acre-inches) per hour or a pumping capacity of 470 liters per minute per hectare (50 gallons per minute per acre).

Might need to hook up some sprinklers...

http://www.wateright.org/960803.asp

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Good info. DLL. That makes sense that ice would act as a good insulator. Like snow. Kinda hard to protect trees that are tall, but vegetation under 15 feet or so, should be easier to spray down. Luckily I haven't planted any cold sensitive plants yet and I'm not planning to until the usual time.

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Brett Anderson disagrees from his interpretation. Looks seasonable for us and mild looks to be moving in by early May.

http://www.accuweath...e-outlook/63736

:rolleyes:

at or below normal sounds pretty much like seasonable weather to me. Mild air returning should get the lake breeze kicking in again while inland is toasty and Tropical is sulking in Sukville.

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LAF has failed to record a freeze so far during this stretch. If it doesn't happen next week then climo really starts battling against future prospects.

I'd bet against it for no other reason than, well...it's LAF.

I looked at the local weather stations on wunderground this morning, and the majority had 32 or slightly lower min temps. Though of course, the longevity (of freezing temps) wasn't too long.

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Yeah...its tough with radiational freezes, because small changes in local winds, elevation, high clouds etc can make big differences... but come Tues, the wind will keep everything mixed and she'll be cold from top to bottom...not much that can help in that situation... I was reading that using water sprinklers in that situation can actually make it worse, if you don't know what you are doing...

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NWS finally getting on board:

THE MAIN CONCERN WILL BE

WITH LOW TEMPERATURES AND THE NEED FOR FREEZE WARNINGS STARTING

TUESDAY MORNING. THE CURRENT TEMPERATURE FORECAST ARE FOR A HARD

FREEZE ACROSS MUCH IF NOT ALL OF THE AREA TUESDAY MORNING WITH

LOWS IN THE 20S.

I'm calling now that Sparta goes into the teens at least one night.

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Yeah...its tough with radiational freezes, because small changes in local winds, elevation, high clouds etc can make big differences... but come Tues, the wind will keep everything mixed and she'll be cold from top to bottom...not much that can help in that situation... I was reading that using water sprinklers in that situation can actually make it worse, if you don't know what you are doing...

Advectional freezes like that are the absolute worst, mitigation techniques become much less effective. Radiational freezes are easy to deal with since the air is still and the freezing layer is on the order of tens of meters. You could just start some bonfires in your orchard and be fine since you'd mix warmer air from aloft down. That goes out the window if the wind is blowing. Spraying water on your plants during an advectional freeze would have disastrous results as well.

GFS shows temps in the upper 20s with winds of 10 mph Tuesday morning, yeesh! Not to mention that the GFS brings MSN below freezing each morning until Friday. Vegetation that's prone to freezing is gonna get cooked.

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Some talk of some cherry crops being completely destroyed in northern MI with the freezes, but damages wont be known for a few weeks. The destruction is sad, but a big LOL to the destruction talk a few pages back. A weather weenie hoping for a freeze is, in my book, a lot less odd than hoping for severe weather, IF you want to play the destruction card. (and even then, imo March heat causing early blooms is more to blame than the April cold killing those blooms, but I digress). But truth be told, weather weenies like extreme weather, so destruction is par for the course with any of that, and we are all guilty at some point. And agree, Brett Anderson is to mild what JB is to cold.

Since our March "heatwave" caused the month early greenup....DTW has had the following lows AOB 35F:

3/26: 32

3/27: 29

3/29: 35

3/30: 33

3/31: 35

4/02: 34

4/05: 34

4/06: 30

4/07: 32

While these arent hard freezes officially (some outlying areas have had some), I wonder what if any effect numerous frosts/light freezes will have (as opposed to a few hard freezes). Bugs have been killed off, as have a few flowers, but thats all Ive noticed thus far. My car at 7:30am today (4/7)

3177-800.jpg

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I've noticed there are no bugs outside now, except there are bees out and about though. They probably took cover underground the last 2 nights. No doubt an advection freeze would cause more damage than a radiational freeze.

Graphic put out by GRR:

apr7_minT.png

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UHI FTW. It looks like I wont dip below freezing at all next week. It gets close at 33 but no cigar at this point. My BS crab apple tree wont respond to these fast freezes. Beautiful blooms with lots of bees. BTW not sure where you guys live but the bugs have been out in full force. Ants, Spiders, Bees and Centipedes were a few of the visitors i saw in the yard today. Typical spring. Nothing out of the ordinary with the insects. Now if we can get a good soaker maybe the morels will pop in the northern burbs and city parks.

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It must not have been bad down here so far there are butterfly's, bees, and fly's around even after last night. Only the wimpiest plants got light damage. Hopefully next week it stays cloudy enough to prevent a major freeze at night. Hopefully we make it through without a major trough plunging freezing temperatures into the deep south like 2007. In 2007 the ground froze a little one of the nights.

Talk about close...

post-6037-0-01424700-1333845003.jpg

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Quote from WGN's weather blog:

It was another rough night for fruit farmers in Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana. Chicago area gardens may not have fared well either as overnight temperatures fell below the freezing mark away from the lake and outside of the city. Yesterday, fruit and vegetable farmers in Michigan and Wisconsin reported big losses after a hard freeze Friday morning. Temperatures this morning weren't much warmer, with readings bottoming out in the teens and 20s once again. The frost and freeze worries are over for the rest of the weekend as a southerly wind marks the return of much warmer air.
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