On a razor's edge

The weather forecast is predicting temperatures hovering around freezing point every night next week. We will be on tenterhooks because after this sunny week, all the vines will be breaking bud. And at this stage, the young buds are extremely vulnerable to morning frost. Forecasts are never entirely reliable, even the day before. For +2°C forecast, we could easily see -3°C in the dead of night, causing severe damage to the harvest. It takes very little: an overcast sky clearing overnight, a forecast north-westerly that turns out to be an icy northerly wind. This heralds a few restless nights ahead, as happens every year. With the milder winters we have experienced in recent years, budburst is occurring earlier and earlier, making the risk of April frosts all the greater. Let's hope we hold out and that temperatures remain above freezing until early May.