To The Editor:
The frost on Friday, September 18,was the first of four that struck silently in the dark and was more of a hard freeze than a light frost. The prediction was for the temperature to drop no lower than 35F. Weather.com warned that three fronts were colliding with a dominant high pressure that was cold. Anything was possible and I hoped for fog, the warmer option. All my basil was protected in a shed, but froze anyway.
When a frost is threatening, if the temperature drops below 50 degrees at sundown, if the sky is clear and the air is still, a frost will occur.
More damaging than the cold are the crystals of frost magnifying the sun’s rays and burning the plant’s cells. Farmers and gardeners can sometimes save their crops by washing off the crystals with water before the sun hits the plants, minimizing the damage. Along the rivers this time of year, a fog will roll in before sunrise to save heat-loving plants and thus extend the normally short growing season just a little longer. That didn’t happen this week, it was just too cold!
The great news is if a frost occurs before the autumnal equinox, we are guaranteed brilliant foliage. Twenty years ago, I was a school bus driver and made a big discovery. One of the benefits of the job was the daily drive from where the bus was kept at night to where I started picking up the kids early in the morning; it was always dark, the moon up sometimes and sunrise imminent. When the sun came up that year on September 6, the areas of frost and fog were pronounced. There they were, the patches of frost in low-lying areas when there were none anywhere else. I saw with my own eyes what the weather people talk about every fall.
By the end of September, the earlier frosted areas were brilliant and beautiful. Those areas that weren’t frosted were drab. The leaves turned brown and fell off and have done so every year, until last week. I predict the game-changing frost will bring us a stunner this year.
Thinking over the past 10 years, I remember after Tropical Storm Irene ripped through town, that there was golden bright light for 10 days. Perhaps this year, on the heels of a dying virus, is the possibility for another bright light of many colors. According to my observations and conclusions, the foliage will be brilliant and spectacular, the likes of which people under 20 haven’t seen!
Mimi Clark
Moretown
