Temperatures are low, REAL low.
As a result, as we move through Friday together into this upcoming weekend you may see some freeze warnings pop up on your phone.
With temperatures dropping as far as they are, you could also wake up to some frost glazing over your lawn, plants, car, and even your roof as witnessed a few weeks back.
Do you know the difference between a frost and a freeze? What if I took it a step further and asked you what a HARD freeze was?
All of the above are applicable for the weekend ahead, and if you don’t know off the top, don’t worry—I’ve got you covered!
Frost is what we see whenever it’s cold enough to collect a bit of ice on the surface of things outside. This could be lawn ornaments, the grass itself, dare I say your uncovered plants, your car windshield and rear window.
Frost occurs when the dew point temperature reaches the freezing point. You also need very calm conditions outside to allow for the “heat” of the day (I use quotes because we know it isn’t hot right now) to irradiate back off the ground. Clear skies, low to no wind whatsoever, combined with a little moisture and cold temperatures often lead to some frost.
Frost can cause some damage to your garden or crops if not properly covered and prepped for these conditions to settle in. But not to worry, if you do get caught “exposed”... most plants are fairly resilient and can bounce back from this. Especially in Florida, where extended frigid conditions are hard to come by.
Now let’s talk a freeze. Then we can get into a hard freeze.
A freeze is pretty different from frost conditions. Frost again, dabbles with dew point at ground level. A freeze means the entire atmosphere from where we stand up to the highest point we can observe weather is below 32 degrees.
A hard freeze is an extended period a few degrees below freezing, 28 degrees being the official threshold. Both of these can cause legitimate and irreversible damage to vegetation and even household appliances or plumbing.
A freeze will likely end a large majority of plants if not geared up before hand. Water your plants before the freeze hits, especially if you see the warning go up with some lead time to spare. Water helps keep a little bit of warmth insulated around and within the roots of your plants.
If you have a lot of smaller, potted plants outside, bring them in.
For your crops or other larger bits of agriculture, you obviously can’t carry them in the house with you, you can still water them the day or night prior and cover them up with a tarp, blankets, sheets, quilts, whatever you can find, really.
You can even set up a fan to stop frost from growing on plants if need be!
In a freeze, pipes and sprinkler systems are usually good to go. It’s under extended hard freeze conditions these may need to be drained. Shut off your main water line if you know your area will be hit by a hard freeze for hours on end. Consider leaving your faucet on at a slow drip to keep water circulating through the system as long as possible.
A hard freeze could appear for some of our northernmost counties but we won’t be in those conditions throughout the day. Freezing temps might try to linger an hour or two after sunrise because of how dense this layer of cold air is.
Hopefully, this article better equips you for what’s ahead! We’ll be out of the cold temps very soon, just have to keep bobbing and weaving a little bit longer.
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