This week started out on the cool side with temperatures in the 60s. My colleague Jay Warren said it beautifully: “It feels more like late October out there.”
But by week’s end, we should climb well into the 70s.
Honestly, it should be the other way around, and here’s why.
Fall begins on Friday at 5:05 a.m. Granted, as we welcome in fall, temperatures will be seasonable for this time of year, but it would be fitting to greet fall in with, fall-like (October-like) temperatures. And although we still have a few weeks before the temperatures really start to affect agriculture, now might be a good time to review.
How cold we get at night is key to how strong the freeze is. For example, getting down to 32 degrees (a light freeze) is considered freezing, and is likely to hurt or even kill sensitive plants or vegetation.
However, temperatures of down around 25 degrees, (a hard freeze) would kill even the most hearty of plants.
Generally speaking, our first night with temperatures near the freezing mark occurs in Lynchburg in late October or early November, while in Danville, those dates are a couple of weeks later.
Our first frost usually occurs a couple of weeks before our first freeze, but is a good foreshadowing of what’s to come. Regardless, the growing season is coming to an end across southwest Virginia.
The days of tulips and daffodils have given way to mums and pumpkins. It’s hard to believe Christmas is just about three months away.
Haniewich is chief meteorologist with WSLS Channel 10. His column is published every Wednesday.
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