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Public Information Statement
National Weather Service Boston/Norton MA
949 AM EDT Thu Sep 28 2023

...NWS Boston/Norton will continue an experiment this fall to improve
services related to the Frost/Freeze Program...

The National Weather Service’s (NWS) Frost/Freeze Program consists
of issuing Frost Advisories, Freeze Warnings or Hard Freeze Warnings
when cold temperatures potentially threaten tender vegetation and
crops during the period of time between the median date of the last
Spring Freeze (temperatures at or below 32F) and the median date of
the first Fall Freeze.

In prior years, the discontinuation of the issuance of Frost/Freeze
headlines during the fall was based on the occurrence of a freeze
in a weather forecast zone or two weeks after the median first Fall
Freeze date if no freeze had occurred. This approach was confusing
to many users as meteorological conditions often led to a patchwork
ending of the NWS frost/freeze program across adjacent weather
forecast zones and NWS forecast areas.

The NWS forecast offices serving New England and New York
(Burlington VT, Gray ME, Boston/Norton MA, Albany NY, Buffalo NY,
Binghamton, NY, New York NY) will continue an experimental program
service during the fall of 2023. The purpose of this experimental
program is to streamline the Frost/Freeze program for simplified
customer usability.

This experiment means that Frost/Freeze headlines will be issued
for any threat of a frost/freeze up to the 75-90th percentile of
the median first Fall Freeze, established by using 30 year
temperature averages. More simply, the program end dates are aligned
to be up to 10 days after the median first occurrence of 32F or lower
temperatures in the fall.

The following are the climatologically defined areas across the
forecast area served by NWS Boston/Norton, which is most of southern
New England, and the associated date at which the frost/freeze alerts
will no longer be issued.

October 11th: Northwest and North Central MA

October 21st: Areas of MA south of the Mass Pike, and into the
Merrimack Valley of NE MA.

November 1st: North Central and Northeast CT, all of RI, and the
remainder of MA (Eastern, Southeast, Cape and Islands)

The goal is to streamline the frost/freeze process, by using defined
ending dates, which should make it easier and aid in planning decisions
for our users.

A detailed handout with Median Last Spring and First Fall Freeze
climatology can be found at:
https://www.weather.gov/media/box/BOXFrost_Freeze_2023.pdf

If you have any questions or comments on this experiment, please contact
Andy Nash, Meteorologist-in-Charge, at andy.nash@noaa.gov

$$