Experts with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture are advising floriculture and specialty crop producers to prepare for freezing temperatures toward the end of the week.
The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning last week for the state's four northwesternmost counties, as well as a frost advisory for surrounding counties in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Temperatures briefly fell to 32 degrees Fahrenheit Friday night.
While temperatures returned to more moderate levels Saturday afternoon and Sunday for much of the state, forecast modeling projects that cooler air will arrive across Arkansas by this Thursday. Probabilities of freezing throughout Arkansas range from about 20 percent in the southwest to greater than 60 percent in the northwest.
Anthony Bowden, extension ornamental horticulture expert for the Division of Agriculture, warned residents with potted house plants or citrus should bring them inside. "A lot of people will put their house plants outside," Bowden said. "Plants such as monsteras and philodendrons, definitely will not weather a freeze. Container-grown citrus — lemons, for example — you want to bring those in. They won't handle the cold at all. They'll more than likely die back if you leave them outside for long periods."
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