ATOK, BENGUET -- THE BIG CHILL GRIPPING this vegetable town is making farmers wish for more drizzle, early sunrise and wind.

Edward Puy-as, chair of Barangay Paoay, said farmers also often pray that the temperature would rise above 10 degrees Celsius, as any reading below that often means the likely occurrence of frost.

Farmers would tremble, Puy-as said, whenever they feel the nippy weather at dawn despite being snuggled underneath thick blankets, bonnets and comforters.

This is the way farmers here, particularly in Paoay, have learned to cope with the cold spell that occurs from December to February every year, he said.

In fact, Puy-as said, the experience had also spawned stories related to frost, bringing comic relief to the farmers of colder weather, like a husband who had learned to use his wife’s brassiere as a mask to fight frost bite while tending his farm at daybreak.

Or, he said, bachelors getting married just to be able to have someone to cuddle during the cold mornings.

Puy-as said children come to school with burnt cheeks while older residents complained of their skin becoming rough and etched.

“The cold spell has become a part of their lives,” he said.

Since Jan. 1, the town has experienced drops in temperature. Barangays Paoay and Cattubo here bore most of the cold’s brunt.

The town’s agriculture office had recorded a steady drop in temperature. Their records showed that on Jan. 3, the start of the cold front, the town recorded a temperature of 14 degrees Celsius.

The reading went down to 8 degrees Celsius on Jan. 5, the first time thick frost happened this year.

From then on, the temperature swung between 10 and 13 degrees Celsius on the average, said Victoria Antonio, local agricultural technologist.

The town’s digital thermometer is housed at the agriculture office.

Frost occurred on Jan. 27 (9 degrees Celsius), Jan. 29 (10 degrees), and Jan. 30 and 31, and Feb. 1, 7, 9 and 11 when the temperature read 8 degrees Celsius.

Frost, called “andap” in the vernacular, also occurred on Feb. 8, Feb. 13 and Feb. 14 when the temperature dropped to 9 degrees Celsius.

Thick frost also occurred on Feb. 6, when the temperature dropped to 6 degrees Celsius, the coldest recorded so far this year.

Antonio said farmers would predict the occurrence of frost when they experienced unusual coldness between 2 and 4 a.m.

“That’s when they would feel jitters about having frost, worried that they would wake up to blankets of ice over their farms,” said Puy-as.

This would compel them now to pray for wind, early sunrise and a drizzle because these forces would cause frost to melt and evaporate, or slide down the dew from the vegetables leaves and stems into the ground, he said.

For some, they would wake up early and brave the cold to switch on their rainbursts (sprinklers or water spouts) for water to be sprinkled and spread on to the plants so the frost would be removed.

Officials of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration visited the town recently to see the possibility of putting up a weather monitoring center in Barangay Paoay.

Joseph Rios, Pagasa chief weather specialist in Baguio City, said the weather bureau is considering putting up an automated weather station in Paoay.

“The facility would help accurately monitor the weather,” said Councilor Marson Lay-at.

Lay-at, the town council’s committee chair on agriculture, and Councilor Lolito Sarac authored the resolution asking Gov. Nestor Fongwan to extend P300,000 in financial assistance to Atok for the construction of a concrete structure to house the facility.

Lay-at said the structure and the 200-square meter lot where it would be built are the town’s counterpart for the P10-million facility.

But with or without the weather facility, farmers are becoming smarter, Mayor Concepcion Balao said.

“The farmers, by instinct, now know how to strategize their planting calendar to avoid their crops being damaged by frost,” she said.

This year’s frost, for instance, mostly hit plants which were in their planting stages, and not when they were at harvestable stage, she said.

But others would still gamble, Balao said.

Since the weather is unpredictable, some would plant and harvest during February, wishing that no frost would occur.

“It becomes a hit and miss planting calendar,” she said.

Recto Elias, the town council’s secretary, said the town is also interested to know if the cold spell had caused an increase in the sale of leather goods and jackets and in the number of births and marriages.

“The effects of frost on the local economy would be an interesting field of study,” he said.

Sayangan, a sitio of Paoay, is where the town’s market and town hall are found. Stores selling jackets and knitted sweaters dot the stretch of the market.