AUSTIN (KXAN) — The recent weather in Central Texas has felt more like late summer than early autumn. Does the longer summer feel mean that falls are getting warmer? That’s likely but it still remains to be seen. What is possible is that the first freeze is likely to arrive later not only in Central Texas but across the country.
Our media partners at Climate Central did an analysis of 204 cities to determine if the freezes are arriving earlier or later. In the interest of transparency, it should be noted that Austin was not one of the cities analyzed.
The study determined that the first freeze is arriving later in 179 of the cities analyzed. That’s 88%. The delay in the arrival of the first 32° temperature in fall or winter is, on average, as much as twelve days.
That first freeze is arriving late at least two weeks later in 70 cities in the Northeast, Ohio Valley, and Upper Midwest.
What is interesting about the study is that some cities in Texas had delays in the first freeze while others had earlier freezes.
Of the ten Lone Star State cities looked at, El Paso had the longest delay in the first freeze by 20 days followed by Tyler with 14 and Sherman with 10. The Dallas-Fort Worth area had a delay of only three days.
Those with earlier fall freezes? The two at the top of this list are not too far from us. Waco has its first freeze eleven days earlier while San Angelo’s first freeze comes eight days earlier. For context, the average first freeze in Waco is November 21st while San Angelo’s is November 12.
Hard to figure, right?
The negative impacts of these delays include longer allergy seasons, the delay of the arrival of the fall colors, farmers have to adjust their schedules, and a disruption to local ecosystems.
Specifically, timing of the first freeze affects planting, pest management, and harvest schedules. The warming, driven, in part, by carbon pollution, means the growing season is more than two weeks longer on average across the lower 48.
Finally, it’s been determined that the delayed freezing impacts fruit and nut crops. This is a nearly $27B industry in our country. A chilling period that used to begin on September 1st has, in some cities, decreased because of the delay.
The cities across the country seeing the longest delays? Reno, Nevada tops the list of the 179 cities with the first freeze arriving 41 days later. Bend, OR is second with a delay of 38 days, Santa Maria, CA with a delay of 35 days, and Boise, ID and Toledo, OH with a delay of 29 days.
So, while this spate of late-summer weather continues, we’ll take this time to remind you of our average first freeze dates. The average first freeze in Austin is around November 30th. It was delayed by more than a month last year when the first freeze happened on January 6th, 2025.
Credit: Source link
