A freeze watch was issued by the National Weather Service on Sunday at 4:50 a.m. valid for Tuesday between 1 a.m. and 9 a.m. for Marion, Lamar, Fayette, Winston, Walker, Blount, Etowah, Calhoun, Cherokee, Cleburne, St. Clair, Talladega, Clay and Randolph counties.

The weather service comments, “Sub-freezing temperatures of 26 to 29 degrees.”

“Frost and freeze conditions could damage crops, other sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor plumbing,” explains the weather service. “Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold. To prevent freezing and possible bursting of outdoor water pipes they should be wrapped, drained, or allowed to drip slowly. Those that have in ground sprinkler systems should drain them and cover above ground pipes to protect them from freezing.”

Freeze watch or warning – this is what it means

Freeze warnings are issued from May to October (but can be extended if necessary), when low temperatures are expected to be 29-32 degrees. If there is a potential for temperatures to fall into these thresholds, a freeze watch may be issued a few days ahead of time.

According to the weather service, if a freeze warning or watch is issued for your area, there is little you can do to protect plants. If you can move your sensitive plants inside, do so because the freeze will likely kill them, depending on the severity of conditions.

Advance Local Weather Alerts is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to compile the latest data from the National Weather Service.