Howdy! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Life has thrown me for multiple loops and blogging has, obviously, fallen by the wayside as I cope. I can’t promise I’ll be more regular, but thought I’d share an interesting tidbit today:
The Old Farmer’s Almanac regularly posts approximate first and last frost dates for various cities on their website. I just rolled my eyes looking at it – they have nothing even close to me. In addition, mountains have micro-climates. What happens at my house isn’t what happens even a mile downhill.
We’ve lived here almost twenty years and I’ve kept weather records the entire time. Just for grins, I went through and calculated our frost dates. You can see the difference:
First Frost
Calhoun, Georgia (closest latitude-wise) October 29
Asheville, North Carolina (closest elevation-wise) October 26
Our House November 6
In 19 years, we’ve only had three October frosts (we moved in December so I’m not quite to 20 full years of records).
Last Frost
Calhoun, Georgia April 5
Asheville, North Carolina April 13
Our House April 4
I also have another thing to consider: the temperature sensor is on the front porch, where it’s shielded from the sun. The garden is about thirty feet downslope from that and more open to the elements, considering it sits on top of the septic drain field. So what happens on the house level isn’t necessarily quite what happens down in the garden. (Before you say anything, I tried having a sensor attached to one of the garden bed walls. Some critter – probably a deer – knocked it off and stepped on it in just two weeks’ time.)
As you can see, the weather at my house can be completely different than almost anywhere else. It can be tricky to figure out when to put plants to bed for the winter, and when to uncover everything in spring. To my credit, I’ve only guessed wrong one year.
Do you keep weather records for your house?
1 Comment
I haven’t considered keeping weather records for my house. Now, I want to do that!
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