A Cold Spring

Spring snow showers in northeastern Connecticut, May 9, 2020.

It was not much of a winter here in the Northeast, with barely any snow, generally mild temperatures, and as a consequence, a short, early and unproductive maple sugaring season. This has been balanced to a certain extent by the weather since April being mostly colder than average. A couple of weeks ago we even had a chilly, overcast day with on and off snow showers. Nothing accumulated on the ground, but it was the latest snow that I can recall in eastern Connecticut.

Potentilla canadensis (Dwarf Cinquefoil) with just a touch of frost, morning of May 21, 2020.

Then, yesterday morning, temperatures got down to just above freezing, and there were patches of frost out on the lawn, on lower, open spots. In this area, the official frost danger season lasts until the end of May, and frost is not uncommon until about May 15; in my experience we have light frost in mid-May about every five years. But this is the first time I've actually seen this kind of cold after May 20, and I was scrambling to cover up garden seedlings and bring houseplants indoors the night before.

At this point we seem to be done with the cold, and the weather is rapidly transitioning to summer-like temperatures. The native plants seem mostly unfazed by the late cold snap, with maybe a little burning on the edges of tender fern fronds about the only damage I've seen.