The mild winter and early spring this year have caused some confusion for many local gardeners.
The ground thawed, the grass turned green and the perennial plants sent up shoots much earlier than usual this year. However, all of these signs tell us nothing about when the frost danger will be over.
Even though the weather has been quite consistently above average since last fall, there have been a few intrusions of colder weather. In fact, even though last fall was very mild, our first freezing temperature in Fargo-Moorhead happened on Sept. 15, which was about a week earlier than average.
Even if the above-average trend continues through May, there is no guarantee against one or two more freezing nights. On average, the date of the last freezing temperature of spring is May 14. The earliest last frost on record was on April 17, 2007; the latest was on June 20, 1969.
Last spring, the last frost was on May 3, but it did get to 33 degrees on May 26.
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