The short growing season of 2008
Th
LONGEST/SHORTEST PERIOD BETWEEN LAST AND FIRST FREEZE | ||||||||
| DAYS | DATES | YEAR | DAYS | DATES | YEAR | |||
| 279 | 2/25-12/2 | 1946 | 181 | 5/2-10/31 | 1963 | |||
| 270 | 2/18-11/16 | 1997 | 4/19-10/18 | 2001 | ||||
| 269 | 2/20-11/16 | 1880 | 186 | 4/16-10/20 | 2008 | |||
| 267 | 3/1-11/24 | 1938 | 4/10-10/14 | 2006 | ||||
| 266 | 3/1-11/23 | 1935 | 4/25-10/29 | 2005 | ||||
| 4/5-10/9 | 2000 | |||||||
| 192 | 4/10-10/20 | 1974 | ||||||
| 193 | 4/11-10/22 | 1976 | ||||||
| 4/9-10/20 | 1972 | |||||||
e Charlotte area has been going through a pretty cool period temperature wise since the beginning of 2008. May 2009 was able to be 0.1 degrees above average but it was only the 4th month above average in the past 16 months. Overall the past year and 4 months has been a cool one. One statistic that went almost unnoticed by many including myself was that in the 2008 calendar year Charlotte had the second shortest growing season on record. The growing season is defined by the time between the last freeze in the Spring and the first freeze in the autumn. Last year 2008 that period was a mere 186 days, the last freeze was 4/16 and the first freeze was 10/20 last year. The shortest growing season on record here is 181 days set in 1963. When you look at the top ten shortest growing seasons in Charlotte history 5 or half of them have occurred since the year 2000.
