Climate Connection: Lack of freezes
NORTH TEXAS - For area gardeners, the last freeze of winter means the start of the growing season. There is a wide selection of spring crops that can go in now. If you can avoid a freeze, these crops will come in faster and provide excellent yields.
The average last freeze in DFW isn't until late March. And yet… It was in the upper 30s Monday morning. That would require a jacket but it was a full 7° degrees above freezing. It'll be colder Tuesday morning, down in the mid-30s. While it will be freezing in the outlying areas, the metroplex will likely stay just a few degrees above the freezing mark in most locations.
The crazy thing is that here we are just leaving the middle of winter and the last freeze was three weeks ago at DFW.
All of our winter cold seemed to come in one stretch of January. We had a low down to 11°F in the middle of the month, the coldest morning in three years. January was the coldest month since 2011.
But outside of January, not a lot of real cold has been going on. Only one freezing night in November and December, and none so far in February.
Looking ahead for the next 10 nights, the forecast calls for temperatures close to freezing a couple of times… but no freezes.
It is not unheard of to have an early last freeze around here. Back in 2017, the last freeze occurred on January 8, shattering the previous record set back in 2000 on February 5. There is an over-representation of years from this century (since 2000) in the top 10 list.
Our climate is getting warmer, and so are the winters. We are getting fewer freezes and longer growing seasons. This year we've had half the number of freezes we typically get in a season.
At this point, the odds that DFW won't get another freeze this season are low. But as we get deeper into February and turn the corner into March, those odds start increasing. We'll watch those lows for you. I have my garden already planted for spring crops (I started from seed kale, beets, spinach and chard). They started to come up over the last couple of days. It could be a banner crop this year.
Jeff Ray is the senior First Alert Meteorologist at CBS News Texas and an avid gardener. When not covering the weather, he is finding stories about Gardening in north Texas. If you would like Jeff to come talk to your group about how changing weather patterns are changing the way we garden in this area, please email him at jaray@viacomcbs.com.