Frost has touched the pumpkins, squash and any other crops left in the fields of Lancaster County. And if history is any predictor, real cold weather could be coming this way soon.
The thermometer dipped below freezing for the first time this fall Monday morning, bottoming out at 29 degrees. The last time temperatures hit that mark was April 3.
Frank Strait, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather.com, said a normal low for this season is 41 degrees, but it is not uncommon to see freezing temperatures in October.
"This is usually the time of year you start seeing temperatures get down to freezing, even though the normal lows are in the 40s and high 30s," Strait said.
The frosty Monday morning in the East began with a large area of Canadian high pressure in control of the region from a chilly air mass moving in over the weekend, Strait said.
Last year the county saw its first freezing temperatures at the end of October, Strait said, and in 2006 freezing temperatures came on Oct. 13. Both 2004 and 2005 saw no freezing temperatures in October.
Highs are predicted to climb into the 60s across the mid-Atlantic today, Strait said. A front will be moving across the Northeast, allowing some chilly showers to touch the region and bringing colder air behind it.
Upcoming months could be worrisome to homeowners looking to heat their homes in the winter months.
Joe Bastardi, chief long-range forecaster for AccuWeather.com, is predicting the coldest November since 2002, setting the stage for an even colder December.
In his 2008-09 AccuWeather.com winter forecast, Bastardi is calling for "one of the coldest winters in several years across much of the East" with "bookends of cold" in early winter and late January to February.
Strait said Bastardi's predictions are based on weather patterns that have come to the region in the last several months and are similar to ones seen in past years.
The fall weather has repeated a pattern seen in the 1995-96 winter, Strait said, which brought record snowfalls of more than 70 inches total and bitter cold.
The first frost of the season brings to a close the 2008 growing season in the county, which has been called average by farmers.
Tim Elkner, Lancaster County's Penn State Cooperative Extension agent for horticulture, said from a disease perspective the growing season was unmarred, as a dry summer kept the spread of most diseases to a minimum.
Weather damage to crops also was slight, Elkner said, with the exception of hail storms in the southern end of the county in July and August.
Most crop prices remained high throughout the season, Elkner said, with the exception of pumpkins. He said prices remained low at the beginning of the season because of rainy weekends and because the economic crisis caused some people to reconsider unnecessary spending.
Elkner said farmers look at the first killing frost of the season in various ways. He said the growing season can be a little long when it starts dragging into the middle of October.
"It's kind of one of those mixed blessings," Elkner said. "Certainly if crop prices are good, you want to see (the growing season) go on, but at the same time if it's been a long season, you're ready for it to end and clean up and catch your breath for a bit."
E-mail: myoder@lnpnews.com
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