Hawke's Bay orchards and vineyards dodged a late season chilly bullet early yesterday after potential frost alerts were raised.
While the temperature did not fall so far things began to freeze, it got close in some areas, and fruitgrowers and viticulturists said the close call may not be the last.
"All it takes is for a southerly to come on through and temperatures to drop," was how Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers Association president Lesley Wilson put it.
Hawke's Bay Winegrowers Association chairman Nicholas Buck said while it would take several days to hear from all corners of the region he had not been made aware of any frost issues.
"But we will not really be clear of the threat until around the second week in November," Mr Buck said.
Mrs Wilson said falling temperatures on Saturday night and into Sunday morning as a cold southwesterly front swept across the country had frost-beating helicopters placed on alert in some Bay regions and wind machines on several orchards were activated when the temperature got just to 2-3C.
The machines activate as a precaution.
"It was dropping," she said.
The lowest temperature recorded on monitors was at a property off Longlands Rd, where it got to just 0.4C.
But it went no lower and the frost failed to emerge.
She said the threat of a late frost as the fruit season went through its vital early stages was always there but most orchardists had counter-measures, like the helicopters and wind machines.
The season so far for apples, kiwifruit and stone fruit was looking good, Mrs Wilson said.
It was the same scenario for the wine industry, Mr Buck said.
The MetService forecast for the next week was a promising one, although showers and a cool southwest change are on the cards today and into tomorrow, and daytime temperatures would hover around the low 20Cs.