Helicopters enlisted to keep grape crop warm in cold snap
Circulating warm air to the ground during unseasonably cold weather is commonly done at vineyards with wind machines — tall, engine-operated fans installed by farmers to prevent injury to their crops.
About two thirds of Niagara’s Grape Growers of Ontario members use them but with daily frost advisories being expected for the next week some have even acquired helicopters to keep on standby to warm up local vineyards, says chair Matthias Oppenlaender, who operates a farm in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
“This is very unusual,” said Oppenlaender about the frigid temperatures people in his industry are getting ready to embrace this weekend and into next week.
He recalls spring frosts in 2002 and 2012, but nothing of the magnitude of what could be coming.
“This cold, I’m not sure if I remember anything like that,” he said.
If thermometers drop a few degrees below the freezing mark, there will be problems.
“We’ll get very concerned if we get to -3C tonight or the next couple of nights,” he said Friday.
“Everybody is pretty anxious and nervous,” he added.
If it gets this cold, he said crops could be reduced by half depending on what stage they are in and what variety of grape they are.
“Anything colder than that could be pretty detrimental,” he said.
Cold weather will be putting a chill on Niagara for the next several days, says Environment Canada meteorologist Gerald Cheng.
A polar vortex, a mass of arctic air, is making its way over Ontario as it surges southward – creating frost advisories on Wednesday and Thursday night – and possibly when the sun goes down each night leading up to the May long weekend.
Lake-effect snow flurries were falling Friday in parts of Niagara and are expected to drop on Saturday as well.
Frost advisories will be issued if temperatures hit around 2C, but can be avoided if there is enough cloud to cover to keep the air warmer closer to the ground, said Cheng.
He says a cloud mass “acts like a blanket” and keeps the air from being colder at ground level.
Rain showers on Sunday may also prevent frost from forming, he explained.
Friday’s late morning temperature in the region was 3C and Saturday is also forecasted to be a cold one with a high of 7C and an overnight low of 2C.
Sunday’s high temperature could hit 14C and 7C at night — but Monday’s temperature when the sun sets is expected to come in at 2C.
“This below-seasonal stretch will continue well into next week,” added Cheng, estimating it will last five days, starting from Friday.
According to data collected in Welland and provided by Cheng, the coldest day historically this month was May 6, 1932, when a -6.1C temperature was registered.
The most snow to fall in Welland this time of year was May 14, 1895 with 13 centimetres accumulating, said Cheng.
Frost advisories were put in place on two dates in May 2015. The hottest day on record for the month is May 30, 2006 when it was a sweltering 34C. The normal temperature for this time of year is 18C and nighttime is 7C.