Frost/Freeze Right On Time

[andy10917]

Well, today is October 17th, and that's the Average First Frost Date (50% probability) for my area, and what do I wake up to? A Frost/Freeze warning for tonight.

Right on time.

Has the first Frost/Freeze date been nearly on the average where you live? (obviously only for those that are at/near their first Average Frost Date)

[Pway]

Our average is October 20, which has held pretty much true to form the last few years. No frost yet here and if we don’t get it tonight it’ll probably be into next week since there is expected to be a modest warm up.

[PSU4ME]

Same here Andy, it said 10/15 for me (generalization) and we had a slight bit this morning and my last Urea app went down on Sunday so all done till winterizer.

Do you guys usually blow out your systems no (so now more water other than mother nature)? Do you turn back on then off again to water in the winterizer or do you just gauge that around the weather?

Grass doesn't stop growing around here till at least Thanksgiving, maybe even longer.

Thanks!

[greenrebellion]

Mine is Oct 10 and we have a frost/freeze warning tonight, first of the season, so pretty close.

Grass growth is starting to slow down, I was mowing every 3 to 4 days in early fall, now it looks like every 7 days will do just fine.

[andy10917]

Do you guys usually blow out your systems no (so now more water other than mother nature)? Do you turn back on then off again to water in the winterizer or do you just gauge that around the weather?

I don't blow mine out until the Winterizer most years, but I do it myself and can do it in 20 minutes if I need to (if hard-freeze prolonged predicted), so I'm not the same as folks that need to schedule it with an irrigation guy).

[smontgo150]

Mine is October 10'th but we had a very mild frost 10/12 and first hard frost was 10/16. I blew out my irrigation to early and had to redo it the other day. Greenrebellion- You are basically directly in line with me- You have not had a hard frost yet?

[greenrebellion]

Nope, definitely nothing close to a frost around my parts yet.

[smontgo150]

Correction. First hard frost was 10/14. I am relatively rural so our temps are usually 3 or 4 degrees lower than what you City Slickers have..

[This is me]

First frost on 10/14. But quickly melt away as the sun comes out. Tomorrow and into next week low temps are below freezing in my area.

[PSU4ME]

Yeah Andy I blow mine out myself as well. I think i'll blow it out this weekend and then fire it up again for the winterizer.

[bpgreen]

I Googled my average first frost and different sites gave different dates. The dates were pretty much everything from 10/9 to 10/16. We had a hard frost the night of 10/13-10/14.

[HoosierLawnGnome]

Avg first frost in my yard is 10/15. We got frost yesterday.

[ken-n-nancy]

Average first frost for me in Bedford, NH is Sept 26, but it hasn't happened yet this year. I had some frost on the car roof a couple nights ago (37F recorded temp), but that doesn't count.

My irrigation system irrigation is scheduled for Oct 29. I usually have it done the last week of October. We generally have 4-5 light frosts by then, but a light frost isn't cold enough to really threaten the irrigation system. The only really vulnerable part is the above-ground plumbing with the backflow preventer.

However, the forecast is for overnight low of 24F for tomorrow, which is cold enough to do some damage, so before then I'll drain the blackflow preventer and cover it with a blanket to prevent radiative heat loss overnight. I haven't actually run the irrigation system in about a week, due to cloudy days with cooler temps (less evapotranspiration), so I probably could have had it blown out by this time without missing it, but it could have just as easily been a dry, sunny stretch.

[lVlrBoJang1es]

Mine is October 10'th but we had a very mild frost 10/12 and first hard frost was 10/16. I blew out my irrigation to early and had to redo it the other day. Greenrebellion- You are basically directly in line with me- You have not had a hard frost yet?

I'm in southeast MI about 25 minutes north of Detroit. No frost yet at my house, but definitely a "hard frost" where i work about 45 minutes west.

My log from last year has the first week of November marked as first noticeable frost - we're more in line with the average first frost this year which is the first week of October. Quite odd since we had lingering heat (it was 85 degrees a week and a half ago!).

I've already stopped the urea apps for the year (until the winterizer) just to be safe.

[MorpheusPA]

There's an off chance tomorrow night (a day early), but it's more likely to hold off until Hallowe'en night or November first (about 12 days late).

[smontgo150]

Mine is October 10'th but we had a very mild frost 10/12 and first hard frost was 10/16. I blew out my irrigation to early and had to redo it the other day. Greenrebellion- You are basically directly in line with me- You have not had a hard frost yet?

I'm in southeast MI about 25 minutes north of Detroit. No frost yet at my house, but definitely a "hard frost" where i work about 45 minutes west.

My log from last year has the first week of November marked as first noticeable frost - we're more in line with the average first frost this year which is the first week of October. Quite odd since we had lingering heat (it was 85 degrees a week and a half ago!).

I've already stopped the urea apps for the year (until the winterizer) just to be safe.

What City? I'm in Lake Orion.

[jimmo]

Average first frost: Oct 13th
Actual '18 first frost: Oct 16th
+3 days from expected

Central Ohio

[Masbustelo]

It is supposed to frost tonight here, which will be two days early.

[Green]

Yes. Average first frost here: Oct. 14th-21st (17th or 18th being the mean date in that range).
First real frost: forecast for this morning. But the wind may prevent it. We will see. If not, it's definitely going to happen tomorrow morning (Oct. 19th...100% certainty).

[Green]

So, we ended up having a very slight frost. Just enough to create a slight white tinge in the mower tracks until about now when the sun came out, and prevent the grass from being damp to the touch and feel slightly stiff. But if you didn't know what to look for, you might not notice it. I still wouldn't walk on it and I postponed an irrigation appointment due to it. First real frost/freeze is supposed to be tonight.