Last Frost Meltdown
Without naming names, I list some “average last frost dates” published on the internet by reputable gardening organizations.
|
Philadelphia |
April 14 | |
| April 15 | ||
| April 29 | ||
| May 5 | ||
| May 7 | ||
| Allentown, PA | May 5 | |
| May 19 | ||
| Wilmington, DE | April 13 (?) | |
| April 25 | ||
| Trenton, NJ | April 29 | |
| (1/2 hour east | ||
| of Fordhook) | ||
| Fordhook | May 5 | |
| (Doylestown, PA) | ||
| Pittsburgh | June 8 | |
| Here is a | good one: | |
| New York City | May 28 | |
| And last | but not least: | |
| Union, SC | May 16 | |
I was checking a couple weeks ago for planting dates to be sure I wasn’t in trouble with some very tender annuals. The location in South Carolina is in the Piedmont area, near my farm and, believe me, it’s hot there in May.
I feel sorry for the guys collecting “average last frost date” data. These were listed on web sites that came up in the first five minutes of a Google search. Looking them over, I got a headache. Weather is variable, but these averages seem wrong. Even taking wind velocity into account the calculation is not a very tricky problem. However, I thought airports kept these types of records. Aviation people are extraordinarily precise and accurate. The USDA was almost amusing: they indicated for zone 6 that the average would exist within a period from April 1 to April 30.
Maybe I’ve become a bit cynical, but I think the North American gardening community should be capable of producing a website with excellent weather data.