This winter's cold weather might not have been the best for shoveling or snow-blowing, but experts say the temperatures may help local crops.
Plant hardiness helps growers determine how well a crop can thrive in any given climate. For central New York plants, hardiness is an indicator that they will be able to make it through the winter. But recent warmer winters and late spring freezes have thrown off some plants' bud break, leading to some difficult growing seasons. Jason Londo, professor of horticulture at Cornell AgriTech, says this year's cold winter may help local crops thrive.
"When the temperatures go down cold, then jump really warm and then cold again, or vice versa in the same winter that they're not very good at handling because they're they're not historically and evolutionarily adapted to erratic temperature changes," Londo said.
And all that snow that central New Yorkers saw this year may be a helpful insulator. Londo said the snow can also help retain moisture.
"For the most part, the snowpack is great," Londo said. "Our region normally experiences a lot of snow. As things get warmer, that transitions into rain. And when we have more rain in the winter than snow, that water isn't retained by the salt lake runoff into streams and rivers and lakes, so having it locked in and snow so it slowly melts and and recharges the groundwater, I think it's great."
Londo said the concern going forward still lies on an unpredictable spring freeze.
"There's nothing about this winter that allows us to predict if that's going to actually happen," Londo said. "So that threat hasn't changed from any other winter."
