National Weather Service forecast for Gainesville
Protect your plants
Hall County Extension Agent Michael Wheeler offers these tips to protect plants from the April freeze.
1. Cover plants with a sheet. Plastic will work but it has to be removed the next day before the air temperature gets too high. A sheet allows the plants to breathe where plastic can create conditions that will cause the plants to wilt from excessive heat.
2. Sometimes you can take milk jugs filled with water and place a couple around each plant. As the water cools overnight, heat is released from the water and this helps the surrounding air temperature around the plant from getting below freezing.
3. Create a wind break so the plants do not dry out in the cold, dry wind.
4. Water the soil well around each plant. (same concept as the water-filled milk jugs).
5. Mulch plants as the mulch can retain heat as well.
So much for winter being over.
Freezing temperatures are forecast to return to North Georgia overnight as a cold front moves through the state today.
While most of the showers have ended, temperatures already are dropping into the lower 40s and upper 30s and will continue to do so during the night.
A freeze warning was issued at midnight and runs through 9 a.m. today. Temperatures are expected to fall into the lower 30s near freezing, and may dip to the upper 20s in some areas.
Patchy frost is likely with winds decreasing overnight, though some gusts could still reach 35 mph.
Today will be clear at cold with a high in the upp 50s and continued gusty winds. Temperatures will drop back into the upper 30s tonight before a warming trend begins Thursday.