Rogue Valley may see latest frost on record - Gate House

Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)

2015-07-14

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By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune November 02. 2014 5:51PM Rogue Valley may see latest frost on record It's November and Rogue Valley gardeners are still picking tomatoes. Weather forecasters say mild fall temperatures are likely to continue for another week on the valley floor, pushing the first frost back later than any year on record. Frost and freezing temperatures that would've ended growing seasons and killed unprotected vegetation in some quarters failed to materialize. "We had a frost advisory for Saturday night, but then we got a layer of clouds that acted as a blanket to keep the heat down on the earth, and temperatures were a little warmer," said Misty Duncan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Medford. Frost begins to form somewhere between 36 and 38 degrees, becoming a freeze at 32. Frost has appeared by the first week of November every year since 1942. "Everybody here in the office says they still have tomatoes,"  Duncan said. "The latest date is Nov. 5, and it doesn't look like we're going to get a frost before that date." While temperatures have yet to dip below 40 degrees, rain gauges have collected more precipitation than usual. Since the beginning of the rainfall year on Sept. 1, the Rogue Valley, as measured at the Medford airport, has received nearly 3 inches more precipitation than normal. Duncan said both September and October were about 1.5 inches above normal. Although it was nothing like the spectacular 79-degree Oct. 19, Sunday matched the typical 60-degree high for Nov. 2, Duncan said. Forecasters say the high will be 62 today, punctuated by cloudy skies. However, a warm front hitting the coast Sunday night isn't expected to douse the Rogue Valley until Tuesday. "We'll continue to see the unsettled pattern we've seen in recent weeks," Duncan said. "We just won't have intense rain." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/greg.stiles.31, and read his blog at www.mailtribune.com/Economic Edge.       http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141102/NEWS/141109942 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->