By Cory Davenport
The growing season has officially ended for the St. Louis Metro Area, including Jersey County.
While October may not be as synonymous with hard freezes as it is spooky season and colorful leaves, Jayson Gosselin, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service (NWS) in St. Louis said the hard freeze is a little late this year. Normally, a hard freeze in this area is expected by Oct. 28. He also said frost usually arrives around Oct. 16.
“It’s going to be 28 degrees or below tonight, and even colder tomorrow night,” Gosselin said Tuesday. “Whether it’s 32 or 28, it is late in the season.”
This plummet in temperatures right around the time of holiday festivities and trick-or-treating comes in the wake of an unseasonably warm week in which temperatures were in the 80s. Going from that mild weather to a freeze warning is a harsh wake-up call that winter is just around the corner.
However, Gosselin promised there would likely be a reprieve from this October cold snap. Temperatures for the rest of the week are set to increase with the end of the week and weekend seeing highs return to the mid-60s, which is around six to seven degrees above normal.
The outlook also predicted a lack of precipitation for the rest of the working week and only very slight chances as the weekend arrives, giving November a mild start for the region.
When it comes to gardens and farms, though, Gosselin said this week’s freeze may have easily killed just about everything left outside. So, hopefully everyone got the last of their tomatoes off the vine to ripen in their kitchens as this freeze hit.
