Autumn Cold Snap Chills Nation’s Midsection | WeatherBug
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Autumn Cold Snap Chills Nation’s Midsection

October 15, 2021
By WeatherBug Sr. Meteorologist, Chad Merrill
Mother Nature has finally turned the corner to autumn for the nation’s midsection. As a matter of fact, cold nights this weekend will likely end the growing season.

Strong Canadian high pressure settling from the Rockies into the Plains tonight will bring clear skies, calm wind and rapidly falling temperatures. Residents from the Texas Panhandle to the Dakotas are urged to cover cold-sensitive plants and flowers with a blanket or bring them inside as widespread frost is expected with temperatures dropping in the 20s and 30s.

Freeze Warnings and Frost Advisories stretch from the Texas Panhandle to Minnesota, including Amarillo, Texas, Dodge City and Garden City, Kan., Hastings, Neb., Sioux Falls and Aberdeen, S.D., and St. Cloud, Minn.

Similarly, clear skies are expected Saturday night into Sunday morning. Frost is likely in the same spots, although tonight’s widespread upper 20s to lower 30s will have already ended the growing season in many spots. Therefore, additional Freeze Warnings will not be issued for much of the central and northern Plains.

The frosty temperatures early each morning this weekend are right on cue with climate averages. South-central Nebraska to north-central Kansas typically sees its first fall freeze in the first half of October. Amarillo, Texas, usually sees the first fall frost on October 18 while the northern Plains are about two weeks behind schedule on the first autumn freeze.