The past month and a half weather-wise has been absolutely outstanding with record warmth and countless dry sunny days, and no, it has nothing to do with global warming. Just make a phone call to the West Coast and they’ll tell you how cold it’s been there. It’s just been the upper level pattern favoring warm in the east and cold in the west.

Anyways, all of this warm sunny weather has kicked started the growing season several weeks earlier than normal as many trees are beginning to bud, annuals coming out of the ground, and lawns already needing to be mowed. This may all seem fine and dandy, but our 30 year average low for this week is still in the mid 30s. The potential for frost and even a hard freeze is still climatologically a daunting threat. By far, I am no expert in the vegetation department, but all it would take is one cold night to significantly damage leaf and flower development for the entire year leaving trees empty through summer.

I have already witnessed with my own eyes people planting flowers and other vegetation thinking that we’re at that time of the season where the threat of frost and a freeze are behind us with the above normal month of March and April we’ve had so far while thinking to myself how cold April and even early May can get. In fact, anyone who has lived in Monroe County for a while can contest to shoveable snow into the first week or two of May.

So with all of that said, if you’re planning on stopping by your local Home and Garden store over the next week or two to plant those azalea, I would suggest holding back temptation if you don’t want to waste your money in the event temperatures dip below freezing.

Just for the record, expect lows tonight (Tuesday into Wednesday) to drop right around the freezing mark in Monroe County and below freezing away from the lake and any metro areas. Shouldn’t get too low, so a “hard freeze” isn’t likely tonight.