That's All Folks; Growing Season Ends

BY DANIEL GRANT, FARMWEEKNOW.COM

The trend toward cooler-than-average temperatures continued last week with the arrival of the coldest air so far this season, along with some impressive snowfall totals for this time of year.

Low temperatures plummeted into the 20s during the recent cold front, thus ending the growing season pretty much statewide.

“Most of the state already saw a freeze (earlier in October),” said Chris Geelhart, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Lincoln office. “But much of the southern third of the state was holding out. With lows in the upper-20s, it will take care of that (and end the growing season there, too).”

The weather shift last month was a stark contrast to September, which was the fourth-warmest on record with an average statewide temperature of 71.3 degrees. The warm trend lasted through the first week of October, with an average statewide temperature for that week of 66.8 degrees, 7.4 degrees above average.

However, the temperature the past three weeks averaged just 54.7 degrees Oct. 7-14 (1 below normal), 50.9 degrees Oct. 14-20 (3 below normal) and 49.9 degrees Oct. 21-27 (2.4 below normal).

It appears the cool trend could continue this month.

“Overall, the trend is still for temperatures below normal through the first half of November,” Geelhart said.

In fact, the northern half of Illinois runs about an 80 to 90% chance of below-normal temperatures this week. The cold front last week also brought a large amount of precipitation, including areas of substantial snowfall.

Precipitation from Oct. 24-30 ranged from 3-4 inches across a large swath of the central third of the state north and south (between Interstates 55 and 57), from Chicago all the way down to the southern border. Precipitation ranged from 1-3 inches across the rest of the state last week.

That was followed by snowfall that ranged from 1-3 inches in much of the state up to 3 to 5-plus inches in north-central and northwest Illinois Oct. 30-31.