ROCKWELL, IA - It felt a little cooler than normal outside on Monday afternoon, but it was the night leading into that day that was down right chilly.
In fact, Storm Team Three is confirming we hit a record low temperature overnight of 38 degrees in Mason City, and that cold air means a lot more than people breaking out their coats early.
It means a lot of stress for local farmers too.
When you've been on a farm as long as Paul Brown of Rockwell, a cold morning doesn't always phase you right away.
"Actually, I didn't realize how cold it was until I heard the news at noon,” said Brown, “but anytime we get down into the 30's, it makes you wonder."
Wonder about the future of a growing corn and soybean crop that's living in some less than ideal late season conditions.
"The growing season has been rather low stress,” said Sterling Young from Hertz Farm Management, “but we have been much cooler than normal, and as of this date, we're a good ten days to up to three weeks behind."
Young is referring to the growing degrees to date; a term you probably hear meteorologist talk about them all the time.
Basically, it's the average of the daily high and low minus fifty degrees, so warmer lows mean more growing degrees, but right now, Brown’s crops are more than 300 units behind.
"We definitely need heat units to mature the crops, and we are far behind,” said Brown looking at his soybean fields.
"If we're gonna accumulate heat units at this slow of rate, as we are now, we will need a much later than normal killing frost date,” added Young.
That may not be out of question.
Afterall, last year we got that late frost and the harvest went okay.
That could happen again...or maybe not.
"I guess the best word is pray, but it's up to mother nature,” said Brown. “All we can do is take it day by day."
Even if all goes the farmers way, it's not necessarily all good.
Young tells us good yields can lead to lower selling prices, but farmers would avoid costs like having to dry out the crops.
