Spring temperatures and the season so far
It seems like it’s been warm and that we’re way ahead of normal. But the data paint a slightly different picture. First, let’s not talk too much about “normal”. In the last 10 years or so that I’ve been plotting these data, EVERY year has been warmer than normal – some extremely early (like 2012) whereas others have been just slightly warmer. This year too we’re ahead of normal, but not dramatically so. This year is plotted in the thick black line and you can see we’re tracking about average for the last 10 years. We’re slightly earlier than last year. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we don’t get the late freezes that we had last year.
Having said that, we already had a freeze on April 2 that covered many areas of the state. In Lafayette a low of 20F was recorded. Thankfully crops were not developed enough to cause a lot of damage. Those in more southern areas of Indiana were not so fortunate. Some damage is showing up but thinning to both apples and peaches will likely still be required.
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- Apple: early pink
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- Peach: Half-inch green almost at pink
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- Plum: early bloom
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- Red raspberry: pre-bloom
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- Grape: bud break
