Freeze Warning: Have You Turned On Your Furnace Yet?

We've had what seems like a relatively warm fall season so far, so we've been able to hold off making the 'official' switch to the fall and winter by turning on our furnace. But a freeze warning tonight may change things.

Yes, according to the National Weather Service, the Rochester area is under the first freeze warning of the season Friday night. Forget a simple frost warning, this warning states that things are going to get well below that 32 degree mark across our area tonight and into Saturday morning:

• A FREEZE WARNING MEANS SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES ARE IMMINENT OR HIGHLY LIKELY. THESE CONDITIONS WILL KILL CROPS AND OTHER SENSITIVE VEGETATION.
• TEMPERATURE... LOWS IN THE 20S TO TEENS.
• IMPACTS... A WIDESPREAD FREEZE WILL OCCUR. IF GARDENS ARE STILL PRODUCING... HARVEST TODAY OR LOSE WHAT IS LEFT TO THE FREEZING CONDITIONS.

We've already had some nippy mornings at our place-- a couple of times the outdoor thermometer on our deck as read 32 degrees-- but we had yet to turn on our furnace. Okay, full disclosure here, we HAVE had a fire in our fireplace on several evenings over the past couple of weeks, which did a nice job of taking the chill out of the house. But we hadn't yet turned on the full furnace.

Until last night, that is. Earlier this week, I dutifully installed a nice, new hypo-allergenic filter and proclaimed our heating system ready to go. Yesterday, before I left for work, I ceremoniously turned our thermostat to 'heat,' meaning that as soon as the temperature dipped below the set temperature (which we have at 65 right now), the furnace would kick in.

Which it finally did-- at about 5:45 this morning. Sigh. While hearing it kick in was comforting, and even though the calendar says it's mid October, it's just another reminder those carefree, warm, summery outdoor days are pretty much gone for the season.  I was just hoping we wouldn't hear one of the sounds of the winter quite so soon.

Have you turned your furnace on yet?