By Wally Kennedy
wkennedy@joplinglobe.com
Joplin gardeners were heading for the covers Thursday, not because they were trying to get warm in the cold but because their plants needed protection from record-cold temperatures and the possibility of a spring snowstorm.
Snow in April? That’s right.
The National Weather Service station in Springfield issued a snow advisory Thursday afternoon for the Joplin area.
Most areas were expected to get a dusting of snow Thursday night, but there was the possibility of up to 2 inches in some places.
Gayl Navarro, with Ozark Nursery on North Main Street Road, said workers were covering plants to shield them from the snow and temperatures that could drop below freezing.
“It’s better to use cloth because it breathes,” she said. “Plastic will burn the plants when it freezes. We recommend people use old bedsheets to cover their flowers at home.”
The flowers and plants that weren’t covered were carried inside the nursery, Navarro said.
“We’re packing it inside the building,” she said. “The Japanese maples, which are expensive, are hanging out inside with us.”
Gino Izzi, a meteorologist with the weather service in Springfield, said there was a good chance the Joplin area could see a snowfall overnight Thursday.
“There is a narrow but intense band of snow that is sliding from Nebraska into Southeast Kansas and Southwest Missouri tonight (Thursday),” he said. “Most areas will get just a dusting, but a 20-mile-wide band will get 1 to 2 inches of snow that will stick.”
The lows tonight and Saturday night are predicted to fall into the upper teens and low 20s. If that happens, the temperatures could set record lows for this time of year.
“You had better cover your plants because the frost could get them,” Izzi said.
He said snow that accumulates in April is “certainly uncommon,” but it is not out of the realm of possibility. Records show that the heaviest snowfall in Joplin during the month of April occurred on April 12, 1957, when 4 inches fell.
Meteorologists in Springfield were watching the advancing storm Thursday afternoon.
“It’s really impressive,” Izzi said. “There’s visibility of a quarter of a mile and 3 1/2 inches of snow on the ground right now in Lincoln County, Kan.” Lincoln County is in north-central Kansas.
The snow was produced by an upper-level disturbance or wave in the atmosphere.
“It’s riding the jet stream into our area,” Izzi said. “The disturbance is invisible at the surface, but it makes its presence known.”
Back to normal
Temperatures are predicted to return to near normal on Monday.
