The National Weather Service office in Chanhassen issued a Freeze Watch for the Twin Cities campus area at 1:38 p.m. CDT on Thursday, Oct. 15, and reissued it at 9 p.m. that night. At 4:57 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16, it upgraded the watch to a Freeze Warning. The warning ends at 9 a.m. CDT Saturday, Oct. 17.
The difference matters. The weather service said temperatures could fall as low as 31 degrees across Hennepin and Ramsey counties, which covers the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses. The warning started at midnight Friday night.
Forecasters said frost and freeze conditions could kill crops and other sensitive vegetation and could damage unprotected outdoor plumbing. If you have tomatoes in a community garden plot, basil on a dorm windowsill, or a balcony full of mums at your off-campus apartment, it's time to bring them in or cover them. The weather service's advice was short: take steps to protect tender plants from the cold.
For everyone else, expect a cold walk to any early Saturday commitment and frost on the windshield if you park outside. By midmorning the warning expires, and the rest of the weekend is up to the next forecast. Fall in Minnesota is brief, and this was its first serious reminder.
