It was the warmest Halloween since record keeping began in many cities across the U.S. It was 88° in Huntsville, Ala., and 80° in Colorado Springs, Colo. It may end up being the warmest October on record in the U.S., and some days in early November also saw record-breaking heat.
This past weekend some rural areas near Eureka Springs experienced a light to heavy frost. But Eureka Springs still hasn’t had its first killing frost of the season.
Larry Lowman, a naturalist and organic farmer in south Carroll County, said the temperatures in September and October were definitely above normal averages for a good portion of time. Notwithstanding some anomalously warm days (including Halloween), he did have some major cool excursions October.
“I had two extended periods in October here at my locations where we had three consecutive nights with temps in low to mid-30s, and had to deploy many frost blankets,” Lowman said. “In both of those periods, we had one night with a temp of 34°, and widespread light frost. Fortunately, the conditions were favorable for minimal foliage damage, and I still had a mostly undamaged garden in October.”
Lowman greatly appreciated the longer growing season.
“This is a very nice aberration from what I have become accustomed to expect here in Carroll County,” Lowman said. “Every year since I moved up here a decade ago, we have had a light frost sometime in September and a killing freeze by early to mid-October. But last year and this year have been much appreciated exceptions. I was astounded we were in the first week of November and still had not had a killing frost or freeze.”
Further, due to adverse weather events of May/June, he was very late getting some of his most valued crops planted, and is relieved that they could mature and reach harvest.
The warm streak ended Nov. 6 when temperatures at his farm dropped below freezing for more than three hours. It was a thorough kill on tender vegetation.
“I had several hundred feet of frost blanket deployed, so I was saving things important that I wanted to harvest,” Lowman said. “Any bean or pea not covered is frozen. Any tomato or potato not covered froze. My large garden is over. And we are expecting a probable freeze this Saturday.”
As of press time Nov. 8, Eureka Springs still hadn’t experienced a killing frost. Some people have opined that the fall colors have been more spread out and not as dramatic as in early years when there were more cold nights to stimulate leaf color.
Lowman said those periods in late September and early October when temperature in his part of south Carroll County dipped into the 30s stimulated some of their foliage.
“I have noted here in my valley relatively normal and a very attractive early season foliage display,” Lowman said. “A couple weeks ago the early season species peaked – blackgum, hickories, sumac, etc., and we had a really fine display of sugar maples here. Driving along the edge of the woods last week on the road to my homestead was spectacular, mainly with the understory glowing in the shafts of sunlight reaching the forest floor, with mostly gold and yellow shining from the hickories, pawpaws and wild spicebush, and most recently some pale yellow box elder.”
He said some of this early color was quick to end, with several very windy, warm days drying out foliage and causing it to fall. But Lowman said we still have our “main” fall color event ahead. Red and black oaks are still green, and will begin to color the Ozark hillsides with yellow, gold, and umber in coming days.
“I don’t think the heat will detract much from this,” he said. “To me, that is always the highlight of the Ozark color season. I had to drive to central Arkansas recently, and I must say I enjoyed the fall foliage along Highway 21 from my homestead down through Boxley Valley and on to about Fallsville and Ozone.”
Local organic farmers Andrew and Madeleine Schwerin had their first frost at their farm near Keels Creek this past weekend, too.
“We’re colder than Eureka Springs, but not as cold as Larry,” Andrew Schwerin said. “Eureka is up on a ridge. The cold air sinks down in the valley so Eureka stays warmer than some of the surrounding areas. Strangely, our weather used to be as cold as Larry’s but, the past two years, it isn’t getting as cold. Some microclimates have changed.”
Schwerin said the record latest first frost date for Fayetteville in Nov. 11. That record was nearly broken when Fayetteville got its first frost Nov. 6.
“The weather is cooling down to almost normal temperatures,” Schwerin said. “It is still going to wrap up. Winter has to come sometime.”
Like other local growers, the longer growing season worked well for them. But Schwerin also said that they had to deal with more plant diseases from the warm, wet weather instead of the usual cool, crisp fall days.
“Warmer weather helped the diseases expand,” he said.
And while the weather in Northwest Arkansas has been favorable, parts of the U.S. are suffering from severe drought. Much of Alabama and Georgia got less than .25 inch of rain in October, and some areas in those states have seen their driest 60-day periods on record.
Changes in weather patterns including more extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and temperature extremes, have been predicted by scientists because of the increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases on Earth caused by emissions from fossil fuels and other sources. Schwerin said while this area of Arkansas has had mostly beneficial climate impacts this year, the future is anyone’s guess. There could be record breaking cold as well as heat ahead.
“That is why they stopped calling it global warming and started calling it climate change,” Schwerin said. “Everything is not warmer across the board. It is very hard to predict changes in weather or climate. I do not know the effect climate change will have for us here in the future.”