Frost Freeze Hazards

Frost / Freeze Hazards

RISK LEVEL	HAZARD DESCRIPTION
Low	Temperatures are expected to fall into the mid 30s with calm winds. There is a chance of a light frost. A few isolated locations may experience a frost with temperatures falling to near freezing, but most areas will remain frost free.
Moderate	Temperatures are expected to fall into the lower 30s with calm winds. Frost is likely.
High	Temperatures are expected to fall well below freezing resulting in a hard freeze or a killing frost.
Over	The growing season is over for indicated counties. A widespread killing frost has occurred and frost advisories and freeze warnings will no longer be issued for these counties this winter. The frost/freeze program will recommence at the beginning of the growing season in March.

The existing NWS WFO Newport/Morehead City Graphical Hazards have been discontinued due to technical issues. A new version of these hazards graphics is under development and will be implemented once it has passed an internal testing period. This will hopefully come in 2016, but we cannot estimate when at this time. We regret the inconvenience and hope you found the previous version of this webpage and graphics useful. We hope you will find the new version of this webpage just as useful when it comes online.

General Information

Frost advisories and freeze warnings are issued at the beginning and ending of the local growing season. A frost event is the formation of thin ice crystals on the ground. The actual air temperature does not necessarily fall below freezing for a frost event. Killing frost refers to a severe frost that will end the growing season, and would be associated with below freezing temperatures. Freeze refers to a situation where the temperature will fall to freezing or below.

At the end of the growing season, only the first freeze or killing frost is considered a hazard. After that, the threat of a frost or freeze is represented on the graphic as being "Over", and that county is colored gray. At the beginning of the growing season (average date of last freeze), all frost and freeze threats will be depicted.

Send e-mail with your comments and suggestions to John Cole.

Updated 4/29/2015