The weather in Bend over the weekend might have come as a shock, as residents looked out their windows to see snow flurries at the end of April. And just when everyone thought the worst of their heating bills had passed, nightly temperatures plunged to the mid-20s.

Mary Wister, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Pendleton, said this winter’s below-average temperatures and late-season snow aren’t record breaking, but they certainly aren’t ordinary. At this time of year, higher elevations usually see more melt than snow accumulation, but over the weekend, the Cascades saw several inches of fresh snow, she said.

“Spring is a wild card when it comes to April and May. You can have times where it can be pretty cold with low snow levels and next year you’ll have much warmer conditions,” Wister told The Bulletin. “In fact, Redmond last year had a record high of 90 degrees on April 30, and yesterday they were a high of 53 … a little over 10 degrees cooler than average.”

Fruit trees’ remorse

Temperatures are expected to increase slightly moving through the week, but the low nightly temperatures have already done their damage, said Amy Jo Detweiler, community horticulturist for Oregon State University Extension in Central Oregon. Residents expecting a hearty crop from their fruit trees this year are likely to be disappointed.

“In Central Oregon, we have fits of warmups and cooldowns,” Detweiler said. “Last year we were really lucky that we had no cold spells which resulted in a big crop for fruit trees. The biggest impact we will see if it drops down to 25-28 degrees will be that it will affect the (fruit trees’) flowers,” Detweiler said.

With a forecast low of 27 degrees Tuesday night, combined with even colder nightly temperatures earlier in the week, Detweiler said she suspects more than a few trees have experienced frost damage.

Aside from fruit-bearing trees, cold spells that extend later into the spring season shouldn’t be an issue for aspiring gardeners, Detweiler told The Bulletin. It’s best to hold off until the first week of June to plant any vegetables, but early-season crops like kale, spinach and lettuce are hearty enough to withstand a spring frost, she said.

Outdoor dining? Maybe 

The unpredictability of spring weather is also something restaurants need to account for. Cheri Helt, the owner of Zydeco Kitchen and Cocktails, said she’s looking forward to opening outdoor seating in a couple weeks, but it’s not quite warm enough yet.

“It’s usually too chilly this time of year,” Helt said. “Because we are a dinner restaurant, it has to be pretty warm for us to sit outside.”

On the other hand, Bend Brewing Co. Manager Kayla Heuton said there have already been some sunny days drawing crowds this year. And because the brewery’s seating is mostly outdoors, the weather does make a big difference.

“We had a few summer days in the last couple months and those days have been busier,” Heuton said. “It seems like the weather can’t make up its mind … but this time of year is the shoulder season.”

This week, the high is expected to peak at 62 degrees on Friday only to drop down again over the weekend, according to the weather service. The chance of slight showers earlier in the week also solidifies into Friday, with a 70% chance of rain during the day and at night. The rain is good, Wister said, because the recent storms have put Central Oregon at above-average rainfall whereas Eastern Oregon is below-average for rain so far this year.

“We’re pretty fortunate that Central Oregon isn’t quite the warm and dry conditions that you were seeing last year. That’s good news. We don’t want it to get too warm too fast,” Wister said.