WEST MICHIGAN – Planters beware! FREEZE WARNINGS are in effect for the entire area for Sunday night in to Monday morning. Many locations will see the thermometer drop between 25 and 30 degrees. Make sure to cover up the plants or bring them in as a widespread hard frost is expected.
A majority of the fruit trees have already bloomed and could be hurt by the cold. Even farms that grow something as simple as hay may see some damage to that type of crop. What we don’t want is a repeat performance of the 2012 growing season when 98 percent of the apple crop was lost to a frost/freeze.
While it appears as if temps will not be well below freezing for an extended period of time, some bud damage is still likely. But as apple growers have said before, they anticipate some bud loss each season but still hope for between 40 and 60 percent of their crop. That’s normal…that’s good.
Metro areas like Grand Rapids will likely stop around 30 degrees for overnight lows, but outlying locations will likely fall in to the 20s. Much of the “ridge” from Ottawa through Kent County lies in rural areas, although some of the higher ground may be fine since cold air has a tendency to sink to lower levels and depressed areas in topography. The record coldest low temperature for Grand Rapids for May 13 is 27 in 1946. The second is 28 degrees in 1996, and the third was also 28 in 1971.
Click hereto see the National Weather Service FREEZE WARNING and check www.fox17online.com/weather to check temperatures, satellite, and radar.
