An ag meteorologist says warmer-than-normal temperatures have pushed back the fall’s first freeze.
Eric Hunt with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says a cooling pattern will set in over the next several days but warmer temperatures will return. “If you don’t get a freeze early next week, I don’t think you’re going to have a chance for one for at least another week.”
He tells Brownfield it could extend the growing season for some farmers in parts of the Corn Belt. “I certainly don’t think it’s going to hurt corn and soybeans at all. If anything, having a later first freeze means that anything that got planted later had more time that got more mature. There’s probably a bigger impact on ecosystems in general.”
Hunt says the first freeze date is slowly trending later than normal. “It’s a little more subtle than I think people (think). We’ve had years, especially in the last five years, where we have had a freeze somewhere in late September and early October and that can keep that average date closer to historical norms.”
He says the weather pattern this fall hasn’t been favorable to bring colder air into the Northern and Central Great Plains before spreading east.
