As forecast, we experienced our first hard frost this morning. The morning low temperature was 29 degrees. The bird bath froze! This was possibly the latest frost that I remember in the 10 years we have been here. I’ll need to check my records to verify. Check out frost around the trees in the first picture. Note the lack of frost under the Swamp White Oak( Quercas bicolor…one of my favorite trees) due to the heat trapping effect of its large leaves. Now look at the smaller Washington Hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum), the tree on the left with the red fruit . Since most of the leaves have fallen off, there is no way to prevent the radiative cooling overnight.
