The National Weather Service released a freeze watch at 12:18 p.m. on Monday valid for Wednesday between 1 a.m. and 9 a.m. for Marion, Lamar, Fayette, Winston, Walker, Blount, Etowah, Calhoun, Cherokee, Cleburne, Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Talladega, Clay and Randolph counties.

The weather service states to anticipate, “Potential for sub-freezing temperatures ranging from 30 to 32 degrees.”

“Frost and freeze conditions could kill crops and other sensitive vegetation,” says the weather service. “Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold.”

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.