Temperatures can dip below freezing at times in San Benito County, but is 9 degrees possible?
That’s what a station at Moody Canyon recorded overnight, according to the National Weather Service. Moody Canyon is located about 10 miles northeast of Pinnacles National Park and around 40 miles southeast of Hollister.
The eye-popping mark at 9 degrees was so low, the National Weather Service “flagged” the Moody Canyon station – “probably because of that low temperature mark on it overnight,” said Mark Strudley, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service.
“It may not be wholly accurate,” Strudley said.
He said there were no other official stations in that area to provide a reference for comparison and to figure out the likelihood of the mark’s accuracy. The closest stations at Pinnacles and Paicines registered temperatures between 21 and 24 degrees, Strudley said.
All of those temperatures, including the 9 degrees at Moody Canyon, were registered sometime after 4 a.m., said Strudley, who could not provide specific times.
A station in the northern Hollister area got down to 20 degrees, with other Hollister stations registering temperatures between 24 and 26 degrees, according to the weather service.
Over in Gilroy, temperatures got as low as 21 degrees overnight, he said.
The low temperatures came in a particularly chilly week for the county. Hollister’s low temperature the day before was 22 degrees, with 28 as the low Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, said Strudley, who did not immediately have this week’s historical data for Moody Canyon or long-term historical comparisons for the Hollister area.
Looking ahead, the forecasted low for tonight is 38 degrees, with an 80 percent chance of precipitation. There is a chance of showers overnight Saturday as well, with a low of 27, according to the weather service.
As for the local impact on the agriculture industry, temperatures near freezing are “not unusual” for this time of year, said Agriculture Commissioner Ron Ross. He said freezing temperatures could be good for tree and vineyard crops.
“It’s good for fruit trees to have chilling hours,” Ross said.
Some crops, such as broccoli, could receive damage, he said.
