The frost would be on the pumpkin, if there were any pumpkins left. But a month later than usual, northern Utah's first freeze of the season finds the pumpkins out of the field — they were picked for jack-o'-lanterns or Thanksgiving pies.
And although up to 2 feet of snow fell on the mountains Sunday and Monday, according to KSL chief meteorologist Mark Eubank, that probably will be the last of the flurries until Thanksgiving.
Most likely, the storms were too weak and too late to allow ski resorts to open for that holiday, he added.
For weeks, Utah basked in record-setting warmth, with unusually mild weather. But the Sunday-Monday storm "is ushering in the colder air," Eubank said.
Next, a high pressure system will sweep in and trap the colder air in the valleys. "I think we're heading into two weeks of dry, and air pollution."
As the slide into a colder period began Saturday, Salt Lake City ended a long stretch of days in which the thermometer never dipped to freezing.
The average date for the first frost is Oct. 15, according to the National Weather Service. The typical warm season, the length of time from spring to fall without frost, is 167 days.
At 220 days, this was the third-longest "freeze-free" period since the service began keeping records at Salt Lake International Airport in 1928. The warm times began April 6 and continued through Nov. 11, said Dan Brown, meteorological technician at the NWS forecast office, 2242 W. North Temple.
The second-longest such period was 223 days, from March 21 through Nov. 8, 1985. The champ is the 236 days with no frost from March 12 through Nov. 2, 1992.
Also, Saturday's was the third-latest freeze in the record books. The second-latest date in the year when the temperature dropped to 32 or lower was Nov. 13, 1934, while the latest was Nov. 14, 1988, Brown said.
Now that the string of warm weather has snapped, the forecast is for windy, cool conditions.
Today's prediction is for sunny skies, with the high reaching only around 39 or 40 degrees. Tonight the region will be in for another bout of nippy weather, with a low of 23 expected in Utah's capital.
For the rest of the week, the same sort of weather will prevail, highs in the middle or upper 40s, lows at night in the upper 20s.
E-mail: bau@desnews.com