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October 23, 2009

Expert: Area has coldest October since '52

By Sheri McWhirter

TRAVERSE CITY -- It's been a cold October. Very cold. Historically cold.

"I just don't go outside," said Arlene Emerson, a longtime Traverse City resident. "I just stay inside and crank up the thermostat."

Residents across the region spent this month shivering in chilly temperatures, scraping frost from windshields and seeking warmth by dressing in layers and huddling beneath electric blankets.

It's been so frosty that records show it's the coldest October in northern Michigan since 1952, according to the National Weather Service.

"The average temperature through Oct. 20 is 43.9 degrees. More importantly, that's 6.9 degrees below normal this month," said Mike Boguth, NWS meteorologist at the Gaylord weather station. "Three degrees difference is significant and when you're talking almost seven degrees, that is historic."

Monday was the first day temperatures climbed above normal this month, he said.

And area residents are gearing up for more.

"They've been all over it. They are buying the cold weather stuff," said Rob DeWeese, manager at DeWeese Hardware in Traverse City.

Hot items for cold weather preparations include plastic covering for windows, storm windows, weather stripping, spray foam insulation, electric heaters, roof cables to prevent ice buildup, hot water heater blankets, water pipe insulation tubes and attic insulation materials, DeWeese said.

"We've been selling it for a while. They got on it early this year, about a month ago," he said.

And homeowners aren't the only ones impacted by recent chilly temperatures. Area farmers struggled with crops through an unusually cool and rainy summer, so this chilly autumn is more of the same.

"Grapes are struggling. Tomatoes tanked this year because we didn't have the heat and warmth to ripen them and we had wet weather that caused blight," said Nikki Rothwell, coordinator at the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station in Leelanau County.

The one bumper crop is apples, an agricultural product that thrived this season, she said.

Grape growers hoped for warmer temperatures in September and October and for the most part were left disappointed.

"It was a very cool season this year. We really needed every day of heat we could get. We really needed a warm October and it didn't come," said Marcel Lenz, vineyard manager and viticulturist at Leelanau Cellars in Omena.

The cool summer came after a particularly cold winter last year, he said.

"We had a double-whammy. The result is delayed fruit maturation," Lenz said, adding that some grape varieties are doing well, he said, despite the cold.

But those conditions are driving day-trippers into the tasting rooms, said Tony Lentych, general manager at the winery.

"The irony of all of this is warm, sunny days are great for growing grapes, and cool, rainy weather is good for staying inside and tasting wine," he said.

Numbers are strong in the tasting room, but poor economic conditions are keeping visitors from spending big wads of cash, Lentych said.

Area residents should prepare for more icy temperatures as the region shifts into winter mode, Boguth said.

"It's very rare to get a whole year that's really cold," he said. "But we expect this colder-than-normal weather will continue into early winter."

Lake Michigan already is five degrees cooler than normal at this time of year, a situation that may lead to heavy ice cover similar to last winter. That could mean less lake-effect snowfall, but won't mitigate snow-carrying storms, Boguth said.

In the short term, this weekend will continue to be wet and chilly, with possibilities for mixed rain and snow Saturday and Sunday. Temperatures will be in the 40s by day and dip into the 30s at night, perhaps even freezing overnight Saturday, Boguth said.

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