Freezing temperatures are expected across eastern Nebraska tonight, which could cause some major problems for growers of fruits and vegetables — along with thousands of backyard gardeners.

Paul Domoto, a horticulturist, says the amount of damage will depend on the low temperatures.

“If it drops below 28 or to 28, we’re going see some initial damage,” Domoto says. “But if it drops below 25, we’re going to see extensive damage.”

Temperatures are expected to drop into the 20s tonight in northeast Nebraska, where 19 counties are under a Freeze Warning. Another ten counties in southeast Nebraska are under a Freeze Watch where temps may bottom out around 30 degrees.

Fruit growers have been worried about a freeze for weeks, as blossoms arrived about a month early this year. Domoto says grape growers shouldn’t be too worried.

“One of things about grapes, they have primary and secondary buds. So, we may lose the primaries, but the secondary bud will break and grow and depending on the variety, that can be fairly fruitful,” Domoto said.

Learn more about tonight’s watches and warnings at www.weather.gov/oax

Nebraska wheat growers are hoping history doesn’t repeat itself this spring.

While the weather has been unseasonably warm, Gage County extension educator Paul Hay recalls a cold snap that hit in May of 1985 which destroyed wheat fields across southeast Nebraska.

“One of the saddest times in the extension I’ve spent here was the year the wheat froze on the 12th of May because it was headed and we lost the crop,” Hay says. “You need to watch those forecasts because we’re headed right to the same potential picture and that’s the scary thing right now.”

Hay says the wheat crop is in great shape in southeast Nebraska thanks to timely rains and mild weather conditions. He also knows that mild weather could change quickly.

“We’re looking good right now, a lot of optimism and with an early crop, a lot of operators could get a double crop in afterwards, if we can get it cut on the 20th of June or so,” Hay says, “We’re sitting for that and hopefully there won’t be any reversal against that.”

Hay says if a freeze does hit in the near future, the amount of damage to the wheat crop will depend on the maturity of the crop.

By Dave Niedfeldt, KWBE, Beatrice

Forecasters say the mild weather Nebraskans are enjoying should continue for the next couple of weeks.

DTN meteorologist Bryce Anderson says he was astonished over the warm temperatures the Midwest saw during the winter months and now after the first week of spring.

“Everything has been very warm, very mild across the board,” Anderson says. “These temperature departures that we’ve seen are just mind boggling when you’re talking about stations that are running not just 20 degrees above normal, but in some cases, 40 degrees above normal.”

Anderson says farmers in some states in the region are already starting to plant corn.

“We’ve got reports of corn not only having been planted, but already starting to spike and emerge in parts of Illinois,” Anderson says. “There are producers in the western corn belt now that are planning to take a chance on at least parts of their acreage if things continue as they are.”

He says it appears the mild weather will continue into the first part of April.

“As far as what the models are showing over the next couple of weeks, there really isn’t any cold air,” Anderson says. “You might have conditions getting down into the upper 30s for one night but it’s night like we’re dipping into the low 30s or upper 20s or anything like that.”

Anderson says the mild conditions we’re enjoying now may cause some problems for farmers later in the year year, especially when it comes to a lack of soil moisture.

“If it stays on this above-normal temperature track, then what does that do as far as taking out soil moisture reserves and putting crops at stress as we go into the summer?” Anderson says. “It’s going to be a point of observance and it’s going to be a point of concern.”

By Dave Niedfeldt, KWBE, Beatrice