Canada Prairies, NW U.S. Plains Frost Has Little Impact
By Drew Lerner
Kansas City, September 5 (World Weather Inc.) – Frost and a few light freezes occurred Monday and Tuesday morning’s across portions of western Canada’ Prairies and the northwestern U.S. Plains. The number of actual freezes and permanent 
crop damage was very limited in number keeping the growing season alive and well in many areas. Some soft frost evolved, but its impact on crops was not suspected of being very great outside of a few instances. The coolest air will shift farther to the south Tuesday night and Wednesday reaching areas from portions of southern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba to northeastern Colorado and western Nebraska. The impact on crops tonight will not be any different from that of the past two nights leaving many crops viable and ready to finish out the growing season in a favorable manner.
The cold surge began in northwestern Canada’s Prairies Monday morning when Manning, Alberta reached 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-1C). Other areas in northern and central Alberta reported lows of 33 to 43 degrees Fahrenheit or 1-6 degrees 
Celsius. Wind speeds were light and variable and the nighttime sky conditions were mostly clear. These conditions helped to culminate in the development of light frost. However, with temperatures above freezing the impact on crops was low. Some areas did not have much moisture to work with to create the frost and those drier areas likely came through the cool off period without much of an impact.
The same situation occurred overnight last night with low temperatures this (Tuesday) morning slipping to the same range of 33 to 43 degrees (1-6C) across much of Saskatchewan. Several light freezes were noted in the province, but temperatures below freezing were limited to a quick hour or two at the longest and most of the region was quick to begin warming later in the month.
Some of the frosty conditions worked their way south of the U.S. border into Montana and a few areas in Wyoming and southwestern North Dakota, but the end result was the same as that in Canada. No significant impact occurred to most crops, but some light damage to leaf mass was suspected.
Forecasters expect another night of similar conditions tonight from western Nebraska and northeastern Colorado to northwestern Minnesota and southwestern Manitoba. The impact on crops will be no different and the number of instances with temperatures near 32 degrees will once again be very few. Damage to U.S. crops will be less than that in Canada and once Wednesday morning passes temperatures in both countries will trend warmer and the risk of additional frost and freezes will be low for another week to ten days.
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