Trick-or-treaters will have to bundle up as temperatures turn frightful

Trick-or-treaters will have to bundle up Halloween evening as the temperature takes a tumble Friday. And gardeners should plan to gather their last frost-sensitive vegetables and flowers, as a freeze warning will be in effect overnight Friday.

After a beautiful fall day in the 70s on Thursday, Friday’s high is forecast to reach only 49 degrees. And frost will be on the pumpkin when the overnight temperature falls to 26. The freeze warning is in effect from 11 p.m. Friday to 10 a.m. Saturday.

As of Thursday, Wichita had not yet had the season’s first frost (32 degrees or below), so Friday night is expected to mark the first frost as well as the first freeze. A freeze is recorded when temperatures drop to 28 or below.

Oct. 25 is the date of the average first fall frost in Wichita, and Nov. 9 is the date of the average first fall freeze.

Sweet potatoes should be dug up and remaining peppers and tomatoes picked before the freeze. Although some trees have not yet really started turning color, the freeze should not dramatically reduce their show, extension agent Bob Neier said.

He said the ginkgo leaves drop after a freeze, but other trees should continue with their coloration. That’s good news for Mary Seitz, who travels several miles each day this time of year to look at the avenue of Chinese pistache trees along West 25th Street from Amidon to Hyacinth, just shy of I-235.

The trees this week are “beginning to show colors of saffron, cerise and coral as well as the regular fall hues,” Seitz said. “This street is a daily don’t-miss event for me at this time of year. ... Eventually it will be a solid half-mile of color.”

After the freeze Saturday morning, the weather will warm back up a bit; the lows are forecast to be in the 40s and 50s the next few days, the highs in the 50s and 60s.

This story was originally published October 30, 2014 at 8:18 AM with the headline "Trick-or-treaters will have to bundle up as temperatures turn frightful."