SIKESTON -- Just when Southeast Missouri residents thought spring had arrived, Mother Nature has thrown a cold spell into the mix.
A freeze warning is in effect from 10 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday for several counties including Scott, Mississippi, Cape Girardeau, Butler, Wayne, Carter and Perry Counties, according to the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky.
Temperatures will be in the mid-20s along the Interstate 64 corridor to around 30 near the border region of Southeast Missouri, the Weather Service said.
The forecast temperatures will likely damage fruit trees, especially those trees that have already budded such as peach trees, the Weather Service said. Other plants that are similarly ahead of schedule for the spring growing season could also be impacted.
"Please take precautions to protect any sensitive plants. The cold nights will likely continue well into next week," the National Weather Service said.
A freeze warning means sub-freezing temperatures are imminent or highly likely. These conditions will kill crops and other sensitive vegetation, the Weather Service said.
Sarah Denkler, horticulture specialist for the Southeast Region of the University of Missouri Extension in Poplar Bluff, said there's not much growers can do to protect their fruit trees in a freeze.
"For the peaches, if this (freeze) hits, there will be over an 80 percent of loss for the growers," Denkler said.
While trees are generally too big to cover, if someone has a bush that's budded out, then can cover it with a sheet and hope for the best, Denkler said.
Once those flower buds are lost like that, they will get leaf buds again, but that's it; the fruit is gone, she explained.
For smaller plants that are coming up -- those that have fully leafed out -- growers can try to use a plastic or glass carton or container for protection, she said.
"If you have something big enough where it covers the plant but is open at the bottom so the heat from soil would go up in the container and protect the plant. The container has to be something sunlight can go through such as plastic or glass," Denkler said.
It's not just Southeast Missouri where fruit trees and others have started to bloom with a threat of freezing temperatures; plants in other parts of the state were also beginning to bloom, Denkler noted.
"You can throw a sheet or trash bag over it just to try to save it," Denkler said. "It can't hurt to try to save a plant or tree."
In addition to the freeze warning, light snow is possible Saturday into Saturday evening throughout the region, including Scott, New Madrid, Mississippi and Stoddard counties.
The Arctic air surged through the area late Thursday and into today. Meanwhile, an upper level disturbance will drop southeastward into the region, bringing a good chance of some light snow to much of the region Saturday into Saturday evening, the Weather Service said.
If temperatures can warm into the middle or upper 30s, the snow may mix with or change to rain over portions of the region in the afternoon.
Relatively warm ground and road conditions along with temperatures hovering around or just above freezing should minimize travel impacts through the day, the Weather Service said. However, if the snow comes down hard at times, or if snow lasts much past sunset when temperatures fall into the 20s for good, there could be some impacts, especially on elevated roadways. All precipitation should exit the region by midnight.