Monday, August 25, 2008

Move over, Embarrass, I've got weather for you!

The short story: we had frost last night. The solidified dew on my car that I felt at about 6:30 confirms it, along with the frost-burned squash leaves in the garden. Luckily, most of the garden survived with no apparent damage, thanks to our diligent covering.

We were not under a freeze warning last night, or even a frost advisory. The frost advisory was one county to the north. But I knew better.

The temperature on our pessimistic thermometer read 28 or so. Brrr! The official low temperature at Embarrass, the cold weather capital of Minnesota, was 27. They made news headlines for it, with the qualification that "this is very unusual weather for here!"

Hmmmm? I believe that in at least three out of the four last summers here we have had a killing frost in August, if not July. At any rate, the garden has been pretty much toast by mid September. So, unusual?

I think this is a very local thing. We're in a bit of a low area. Heidi, how did your garden fare?

5 comments:

Heidi said...

Thankfully, it looks like we were spared. The only unhappy-looking plants are the nasturtiums.

Anonymous said...

I remember my co-worker losing all her tomatoes to a hard freeze in July about 4 years ago. She resides in the Embarrass area. Not that they are the coldest...........that would be Tower.

Deb said...

Heidi- I'm glad your garden survived. I've heard from a few locals that our land is indeed in a cold spot. I'm thinking of moving the garden out to the front of our property, which is a few feet higher...as if that would make a difference.

7citychickens- Oh yeah, I remember now that Tower had the record low temperature back in the winter of 1995-96...was it 60 below?

I know there's lots of evidence for global warming, and I do believe we humans are influencing the climate, but when you look at our temperatures here it's hard to believe that things are warming up!

Erica said...

Nice, haha. I heard about Embarrass on the news the other day. We stay a little warmer down here, had some lows in the upper 40's. You can keep your 28 degree weather up there for now!!

eric said...

Have you ever been to Forsaken Embarrass - cold weather news is ALL they've got! ;-)

It was 30 degrees at my house that night, and suddenly there are slightly rusted leaves everywhere.