Chill-hours climatology for the southeastern United States

In the 1990s, several freezes have been responsible for millions of dollars in damages to the peach crop in the Southeast. In this paper we will develop a chill-hour climatology for the Southeast. We will attempt to answer several questions about chill-hour climatology in the Southeast. Among the questions to be addressed include: has there been a change in chill-hour climatology during the past 50 years, are late freezes more common, and is there a relationship between the number of chill-hours and the date of the last spring freeze?