Several blasts of arctic air have gripped the eastern two-thirds of the country since the beginning of 2010. In the South, the extreme cold has been threatening crops, and temperatures tonight could be the most damaging for some.
While temperatures will rebound throughout the upcoming week, a late-week rain storm could cause even more damage to Southern crops.
So far, citrus-growers in Florida have gotten by with only light damage following several nights of sub-freezing temperatures over the past week. Tonight will likely prove more destructive as temperatures drop to the lowest levels in over 20 years.
According to AccuWeather.com Agricultural Meteorologist Dale Mohler, the hard freeze tonight will be the worst since December of 1989.
Mohler said that unlike the last few nights, temperatures tonight across all the orange groves will drop below freezing and most will dip blow 28°, a critical temperature for the fruit. In many groves, temperatures will stay below 28° for 6 to 10 hours or more.
Mohler expects a 6 to 10 percent loss of the total 2009 orange crop after tonight’s freeze. The groves where temperatures drop between 23 and 25 degrees will suffer the most significant damage.
Growers of the tender sugarcane crop in southern Louisiana could continue to suffer losses the next couple of nights as temperatures drop well below freezing.
The harvest has already been set behind schedule due to record rainfall from the fall and into December.
Lows will fall into the teens again to the north of New Orleans and lower 20s across areas to the south. While Monday night will not be quite as cold, temperatures will still drop below freezing.
Southern Louisiana is home to roughly 40 percent of the nation’s sugarcane crop.
A storm expected to develop over the western Gulf of Mexico later this week could spread heavy rain across areas from Texas to Florida and the Carolinas Thursday into Sunday.
Heavy rain could add more insult to injury for farmers by setting harvest dates back even further.
(Source: AccuWeather.com)
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11 Responses
Harvest shmarvest!!! What about all the heimishe yidden that spend so much hard earned yiddishe gelt to go south for these cold winter months just to enjoy some warm sunny weather. I think its time for us yidden to abandon miami & build our vacation hotels & condos in puerto rico or cancun. That’s right we’ll show the weatherman not to mess with the heimishe yidden!!!
imagine how cold it would be without global warming? (and global warming does require great use of one’s imagination)
Global warming in th south!
#1 thanks for the laugh
to #2, about your comment regarding global warming.
I’m sure you aren’t aware of the facts in the global warming issue. I’ve heard many yeshivaleit say that it’s all false, but the truth is that this is a terrible effect of the global warming situation!
under normal circumstances, warm water travels north from south america, causing the gulf stream to bring warm air in one direction and circulate back down the atlantic coast of north america, now that everything is melting away, the whole weather pattern has changed! this really is what’s happening. perhaps you should stop assuming that scientists are foolish and spend some time studying.
#5 so you’re saying that the global warming is making it cold? That’s the stupidest thing i’ve ever heard if that is true then maybe it should or even would start freezing the ice again and the ice caps wont be melting and its all part of a big 200 year pattern!
it’s actually totally sensible to anyone who understands physics….
the ice caps become warmer, melt, the cold water interrupts the warm water currents, the currents become cold, brings cold air. they do not become so cold that they would refreeze the ice caps though.
see global warming doesnt mean that everything becomes hot, not even remotely! there are places that used to be covered in ice and snow, they change, there are other places that used to be temperate, that are now cold. it makes perfect sense to someone who knows how things work.
#5 global warming is the liberal propaganda seeking to turn a democracy into socialism. Even if science does show some evidence of global warming it is way to big to be a cause or a result of human behavior.
hanavon,
i suggest you look at wikipedia on global warming
here’s the link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
for everyone else here’s the first sentence
Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth’s near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation
nowhere does it say anything about other places becoming cold and even if you say some places are going to get really hot you cant say other places are going to get really cold
to #1
heimeshe people dont go down to florida
it is a place full of pritzus
and to you, ‘mbachur’:
i’m not sure if you’ve read the wikipedia article at all! it very clearly says in at least two places that global warming changes the intensity (and frequency) of ‘extreme weather events’. i suggest that click on that link and read more about how, when the earths meteorological patterns are disturbed, some areas become very hot, or become very cold.