How to Protect Sensitive Crops from Frost/Freeze
By Stephen Gode on October 11, 2012, 4:00pm
Use your ← → (arrow) keys to browse more stories.
1 of 10 
The growing season is continuing, for now. A freeze is possible this Saturday morning. There were some reports of isolated frosts in parts of the state of Connecticut already this Fall. With additional frost/freezes in days ahead, what are some ways to protect sensitive plants from a frost or freeze?
Radiation frosts can form on strong radiational cooling nights with calm conditions (less than 5 mph). A clear sky and calm winds allow a temperature inversion to develop for surface temperatures near the ground to be below freezing during a radiation frost. The thickness of the inversion layer varies from about 30 to 200 feet.
A freeze can still form with windy conditions when temperatures fall below 32°F. An advection freeze occurs under windy conditions when a large, dry, cold air mass, several thousand feet thick, moves into an area. A radiation freeze occurs when a dry cold air mass settles in an area with little or no wind and an absence of cloud cover during the night.
