A white frost is the ordinary frozen dew, or hoar frost. Photo / 123rf
Kem Ormond takes a look at the world of farming back in the day.
When it comes to frost, things tend to be a bit black and white.
A white frost is the ordinary frozen dew, or hoar frost.
A black frost occurs when the cold is so intense as to freeze vegetation and turn it black, without the formation of hoar frost.
A black frost is sometimes called a “killing frost,” referring to its effect on vegetation, as reported in the Stratford Evening Post in 1918.
Stratford Evening Post, July 31, 1918
The New Zealand Times reports: On Friday night 14 degrees of frost were registered in Wellington.
Another heavy frost was also recorded in Auckland.
Bealey reported a temperature of 12, which gives 20 degrees of frost in the shade.
Mr D. C. Bates, the Dominion Meteorologist, believes that Friday night was the coldest that has ever been experienced in Wellington.
Frosts, he explained are not always to be measured by the amount of rime upon the grass.
That is accounted for by freezing dew and passing clouds, and he has known one part of the night to be cloudy and wet, and the other part clear, with a very hard frost.
A black frost is one when there is no formation of hoar frost, and is often lower than the hoar frost.
It is sometimes called a “killing frost,” referring to its effect on vegetation.
There was a severe frost, of 13 degrees, on July 5th last, and a similar reading was given ten years ago, on August 1st.
On Friday night the reading was actually 17.7, which shows 14.3 degrees of frost.
Destructive frost
Nearly eight degrees
Widespread damage
Gisborne Herald, September 30, 1941
Heavy and widespread damage caused by this morning’s heavy frost was the worst suffered by Gisborne gardeners for many years, and the frost was so severe that orchardists began to show concern regarding their fruit trees.
Large areas of potatoes were doing well throughout the district, and some were not far off maturity.
The crop was a particularly big one, but judging from reports very little of it was left undamaged this morning and in many cases, it is feared, the crop will be a total loss.
Encouraged by the warmer weather of the past few weeks, the more tender of the summer crops, such as tomatoes and beans, were being prepared, and in some instances large numbers of tomatoes had been planted out, while many bean crops were well above the ground.
These stood little hope of survival, unless well protected.
Even Wainui Beach experienced a frost.
It was light there, but it is seldom that that area is whitened.
However, the frost there was not sufficiently heavy to be really destructive.
Mr. G. Brunton reports that he had only just recently planted out 2000 tomato plants, but the frost missed them, and the only damage done was to a few cucumbers.
Only slight damage was reported to fruit trees.
Mr. J. D. Kennedy, Government orchard instructor in Gisborne, stated that while it was too early to give a definite statement, the position at the moment appeared to be that the stone fruit had escaped, and the pip fruit was not far enough advanced to suffer, except that the pears might have caught the frost slightly.
The citrus trees should also escape, apart from a little damage to young foliage.
The frost recorded at the climatological station on Darton Field was one of nearly eight degrees, with frost even in the screen.
The minimum temperature on the grass was 22.5 degrees, equal to 7.8 degrees of frost.
It is a long time since such a heavy spring frost was experienced in Gisborne.
Hawke’s Bay Herald Tribune, October 24, 1945
A frost up to 5 degrees was experienced in the Hastings fruit growing area during the night, but as far as could be ascertained this morning damage was averted generally by the lighting of orchard pots.
Growers in the St. George’s Road area reported a frost which varied from 4 to 5 degrees.
After the cold southerly snap, the frost was not unexpected when the wind dropped completely last evening, and growers took the precaution of lighting their orchard pots against what one grower today described as a “chancy frost.”
In Hastings, the frost was only four degrees, but many householders covered recently-planted tomatoes, as well as their early potatoes and beans.
- Source: Papers Past
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