The Rankin Killing Frost Date (RKFD) officially went in the books as October 10^th (take your pick whether you want the morning of the 10^th or the night of 10^th).  Frost dates from recent years gone by are presented in Table 1.  The October 10^th frost date was right on target with the recent average.   

        Like 2008, every month of this year's growing season was below normal for growing degree units (GDU's).  Unfortunately, this year was farther below normal.  Even with some nice stretches of weather in September, the month finished with an accumulated total of 375 GDU’s, which was only 6 GDU’s behind the 30-year average and the closest to normal that we've been in any single month.  From April 1^st through the end of September, our total GDU accumulation was 2,147.  The average GDU accumulation for the six-month period is 2,622.  A quick calculation with the abacus tells us that we ended the month a whopping 476 GDU’s below normal for the season, which equates to nearly 24 warm summer days.  

        The graph below shows GDU's for 2009 through October 13^th.  Note that the 2009 line is now below that of 2004, our coldest growing season since I started tracking such trivial weather data.  As of this writing, October shows no indication that a 9^th-inning rally is in the works.  Even if one was, it wouldn't really matter from a crop production standpoint. 

        Precipitation looks like we will finish the season about 3 to 4 inches below normal.  July, August, and September were the culprits.....all being well below 30-year averages.  In the final analysis, it's been a growing season to mostly (peas were good!) forget. 

 Check out Fond du Lac weather data at:
             www.uwex.edu/ces/crops/fdlwea09.htm