Frogs serenade at night and azaleas are showing pink – and it’s only January. Temperatures reaching the 80s make it seem like spring, and mosquitoes have been buzzing around Bulloch County lately.
While the weather might be pleasant, a drop to more seasonal, chilly temperatures could wreak havoc on some crops and flowers.
It’s doubtful anyone will bemoan the loss of some early mosquitoes, but freezing temperatures over the next few months are possible, and they could spell death for budding flowers and fruit trees said Carole Knight, an agent with the Bulloch County Extension Office.
The unseasonably warm weather won’t affect wheat and other winter cover crops, but the unusual temperatures have fooled some flowers, fruit trees and other plants into thinking it is spring.
“A freeze could affect fruit trees and other plants that depend on normal seasons,” Knight said.  Peaches and other fruits could either see an early harvest season or the blooms, which turn into fruit, could be killed by a freeze.
Meteorologist Vern Beaver, with the National Weather Service office in Charleston, S.C., said temperatures are expected to cool down this weekend, but no freeze is anticipated. However, hard freezes in the coming weeks are possible.
It isn’t all that unusual for the Southeast region to experience warmer temperatures in January, followed by freezes in February and March, he said.  While no freeze is anticipated in the Bulloch County area in the near future, cooler temperatures are coming.
Today’s high should reach 76 degrees, but rainfall Thursday will cool things down, with highs only in the low 60s. The rain is expected to be gone by Friday, but the temperature will only reach the mid-50’s. Lows over the weekend will range from the mid- to upper 30s, Beaver said.
“There is no freeze expected short-term, but we’re still in January,” he said. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility.”
Knight said local crops are soaking in the benefits of recent rainfalls, which are helping make up for the deficit experienced over the past few years. Winter crops, including carrots, seem to be doing fine with the unseasonably warm weather, and winter rye is turning fields green, she said.
But a freeze could hurt those plants, including fruit trees, that have been fooled into thinking spring has arrived.
“It’s not so much the warm weather that is the problem, but another cold snap after this could be harmful,” Knight said.
It’s just a matter of waiting to see what happens, Beaver said, explaining that weather is difficult to predict long term. But soon, it will begin to feel like January, he said.
“It will definitely take a turn back to normal this weekend,” he said.
Rainfall Thursday is expected to extend into the night, with anywhere from a tenth to a quarter of an inch of precipitation expected, he said.

Holli Deal Bragg may be reached at (912) 489-9414.