I’ve been watching the long-range weather forecasts for the last week, and it’s pretty clear that our growing season across most of the Southeast will end next week as a huge push of chilly air moves into the region. Northern parts of the region will see frost by this weekend, but by Wednesday morning, subfreezing air will move all the way down as far south as Gainesville, FL, putting a decisive end to the growing season.

This is about a week later than normal for freezing conditions for Athens GA but will be earlier than normal for southern Alabama and Georgia and much earlier than normal for northern Florida, which has an median first frost date in early December.

We are expected to see 2-3 nights of freezing conditions in a row, so you probably won’t be able to save many gardens by covering the plants. Since the forecast is just a week away now, confidence is growing that this will actually occur.

What is especially amazing to me are the temperature forecasts in the mid-teens for the higher elevations of the Southeast, including the north Georgia mountains.