preview

How Climate Change Is Affecting Frost Free Days Essay

Better Essays

Throughout Earth’s history, frost free days have varied over the years. Since the mid-1970s, however, global temperatures have risen rapidly (Easterling, 2002). This raises the question about how climate change is affecting frost free days. What will the future look like if we go about “business as usual”? An increase in the number of frost free days would affect certain species in negative ways, while others in positive ways. There would be economical impacts as well. One might think an increase in frost free days would not be too big of a deal, but in reality, everything will get affected.
Relationship Between Climate Change and Frost-Free Days
As the world’s population grows, more and more humans are contributing to the warming of the earth. As we continue to emit greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane, the earth has no choice but to trap those gases in the atmosphere, which eventually causes the planet to warm. This, in turn, causes frost-free days to increase. Frost-free days are defined as the amount of days between the last 32°F reading in the spring and the first 32°F reading in the fall (Climate Central, 2016). For the past 30 years, frost-free days have been increasing because of the warming earth (Climate Central, 2016). While there will continue to be variations in the amount of frost-free days from year to year, climate change is contributing to an overall increase in the number of days without frost (Climate Central, 2016).
Trends in the Number of

Get Access