Monday, December 31, 2012

Some weather data for my neighbourhood

I now have seven and a half years of weather data for my neighbourhood from the UVic Weather Network. This is still not enough for clear long term trends, but it does give me some reasonable data for the growing season.

Frost is any temperature below 0, a hard frost is -2.0 or lower.

               First Frost of the Fall          First Hard Frost                   Coldest Frost
2012  November 9th   has not happened yet   -0.9 November 9th
2011  November 1st   November 15th  -4.4 November 20th
2010  November 12th  November 21st  -8.7 November 23rd
2009  October 12th   December 7th   -7.7 December 10th
2008  November 26th  December 13th  -9.2 December 16th
2007  November 2nd   December 31st  -2.8 December 31st
2006  October 30th   October 30th   -6.6 November 29th
2005  November 26th  December 16th  -2.4 December 17th

From this data I think I can comfortably count on October stilling being a growing month especially for the hardier plants.  
   
     Last Frost of the Spring      Last Hard Frost
2012  April 7th   March 7th
2011  April 8th   February 26th
2010  March 18th  March 8th
2009  March 29th  March 21st
2008  April 9th   January 28th
2007  April 2nd   March 1st
2006  March 19th  February 24th

The last frost in the spring is fairly consistently within a three week period from March 18th to April 9th with four times the last frost being in the first 9 days of April.   I think that April 15th is a reasonable day to assume we are safe from frost in the garden.

Length of the frost free period
2012  216 days
2011  207 days
2010  239 days
2009  197 days
2008  231 days
2007  214 days
2006  225 days
avg   218 days

Over the last seven and half years, there have only been 15 days when the daytime temperature did not rise above 0 degrees.   The temperatures have only dropped to -5 degrees or lower on 16 nights in that same time period.

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