Weather Records

With all this snow, I got curious about weather records for Indianapolis and found out the following regarding snowfall:

Average Date of First Measurable Snowfall: November 19 – that seems to make sense.

Average Date of Last Measurable Snowfall: March 30 – this is later than I would have thought. I really don’t remember too many snowy days in March, at least not for while. I wonder if today set a new record?

Earliest Date of First Measurable Snowfall: October 18, 1989 – I remember this snowfall, it melted quickly and I assume we had some nice days after that before winter set in.

Latest Date of Last Measurable Snowfall: May 8, 1923 – Perish the thought! I start my ‘gardening vacation’ on May 5th and snow is not in my plans.

Since I’m checking anyway, a few more records of interest:

Average First Freeze Date: October 16 – When it’s over, it’s over. I don’t generally try to cover plants in the fall to protect them from frost/freeze.

Average Last Freeze Date: April 22 – Not be confused with the last frost day, which I generally track to be around May 10th. I usually hold off planting the vegetable garden until after May10th, but even doing that, there was at least one year recently that I remember getting a late frost that killed off all my tomatoes, peppers, etc. and I had to repurchase plants.

Earliest First Freeze Date on Record: September 30, 1899 – Again, when it’s over, it’s over, but this would be early.

Latest Last Freeze Date on Record: May 27, 1961 – Perish the thought!

Now, I need to decide when I can safely plant the early spring crops – onions, peas, lettuce, spinach, etc. They can withstand some cool nights and light frost, but not snow like we got today.