Frost chills flowers, gardens in The County

CARIBOU – Monday was a morning in northern Maine when motorists were scrambling to remember where they stored that windshield scraper last spring, and those with uncovered annual flowers and vegetables were saying goodbye to them.

It wasn’t bad enough to harm the potato crop, but uncovered peas, beans and cucumbers might be in their last hurrah.

Opaque, whitened windshields had to be, or should have been, scraped, but there were some drivers looking through warmed-up holes.

It wasn’t the first cool morning, but Monday morning was very cool. Frost was evident on windshields and rooftops.

Mark Turner, a meteorologist at Caribou, said temperatures in The County were reported as low as 28 degrees Fahrenheit. That was 17 degrees below the average normal of 45.

He said the chilly morning was felt as far south as Danforth in Aroostook County and the northern fringes of Piscataquis County.

“It was widespread,” Turner said of the chilly morning. “It will be the same on Tuesday morning, but warming up Wednesday and Thursday. The temperature in Caribou Monday morning was 32 degrees.

“It was nowhere near a record [for Caribou where the records are kept],” he said. For Caribou, the low for the date was 28 degrees in 1949.

Clayton Lake and the Big Black River area in the far northern Maine woods recorded 28 degrees. It was 30 at Limestone and St. Agatha, and 32 at Presque Isle.

“It was a little frost,” Tim Hobbs, director of development and grower relations with the Maine Potato Board, said Monday. “There are no concerns with potatoes. It was a typical light frost.”

But Rob Johnson, owner of Pelletiers Florist in Fort Kent, said, “This could kill garden varieties. People should pay attention and cover their stuff at night.”

Johnson advised covering garden crops and flowers. “When dew freezes at 32 degrees, it will kill annuals,” he said. “A lot of perennials are frost tolerant.”