Winter made an unwelcome and untimely return to the Cape Girardeau area Tuesday, making seven consecutive days of 70-plus degree temperatures last week just a pleasant memory.
The memory of those warm, sunny days and blooming vegetation was rudely shattered by an outbreak of cold air that is expected to nip a lot of early spring growth in the bud. The arctic blast was ushered in by snowshowers that fell during the day. There was no accumulation here, but several accidents resulted from icy bridge floors in western Kentucky.
The cold weather is going to stay around for a few more days, according to the National Weather Service. The extended forecast, Thursday through Saturday, calls for lows in the upper 20s on Thursday, with a high around 40. On Friday, there's a chance of snow showers, with lows 25-30, and a high around 40.
Some improvement is expected by Saturday as skies become partly cloudy. Morning lows will be 25-30, but afternoon highs are predicted to struggle to around 50, which is still slightly below the normal highs in mid-50s and normal lows in the upper 30s.
The impact of the cold air on fruit trees, flowering bushes, plants and shrubs is worse than usual because of unusually mild weather the past 29 days. Until Tuesday morning, the overnight low at the airport had not dropped below freezing since Feb. 10.
On March 2, a new record high of 75 degrees broke the old record of 73 degrees, set in 1976 and tied in 1983. Between March 2-8, the daily high was at or above 70 degrees. The 74 degree reading on March 7 missed tying the record high for the date by one degrees. The same thing happened on March 8, when the high was 77 degrees.
Before the harsh return of winter Tuesday, the average temperature for the first eight days of March was running 17 degrees above normal, according to Al Robertson, professor of earth science and climatologist at Southeast Missouri State University. Robertson said the average temperature for the first eight days of this month was 60.7 degrees, compared to the long-term average of 43.3 degrees. Fruit trees, flowering plants, shrubs and bushes were already a month ahead of their growth schedule.
David Diebold of Diebold's Orchards near Benton said Tuesday that he expected to lose about one-third of the buds that were about to pop open on the trees in his peach orchard. "The plums and the apricots are gone," he said. "I don't expect to get any significant crop out of them if it gets as cold as they were calling for Wednesday morning.
"If the cold weather had hit in early April, and there were as many buds on the peach trees as there are now, I'd be tickled pink because the cold would save us from having to do a lot of thinning," he added.
Diebold said if temperatures fall to near 20 degrees as predicted, he expects to lose about one-third of the peach buds. But it could have been worse.
"Not all of the peach buds were open, so I would think they will survive. As long as it does not get into the mid-teens we'll get by with a basic crop on the trees," he said. "The only problem now is if another hard freeze occurs between now and mid-April. If that happens, we'll lose more buds and that will start affecting the crop."
Diebold said if the remaining buds are evenly spaced out on the trees after this morning's killing freeze, there is still the potential for an 80-90 percent crop this summer. "But in reality, some of the peach varieties are going to suffer more losses than others," he added.
Normally, when cold air threatens the peach trees, Diebold turns on the irrigation system, leaving an insulating layer of ice over the tender buds. But this time he says the weather conditions were not right for irrigation. "It was too windy and too cold," said Diebold.
The cold air is also expected to kill most of the new growth and foliage that occurred during the past 30 days because of the unusually warm weather. Charles Korns, professor of horticulture at Southeast Missouri State University, says there isn't much that can be done to protect the plants, bushes and shrubs when the temperature drops to around 20 degrees.
"Any new growth or foliage that is now out will probably be killed back, but Mother Nature provides for this sort of thing with secondary budding and growth," Korns said.
He said people may want to cover their rose bushes and flowering plants with mulch or leaves again tonight to protect them from the cold air. "Boxes placed over the plants will also help cut down the wind and the cold," he added. "I'm afraid, however, the blooms on the tulip trees are gone for the year. The forsythia bushes are a little more hardy. If you use plastic, do not let any of the plastic touch the plant," he added.
The record low for March 11 is minus one.
The average daily high for today is 56 degrees. The average low, 38 degrees.
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