Posted on 01/09/2010 6:38:57 PM PST by justa-hairyape
Florida orange growers are bracing for possible crop damage as an arctic blast plunges temperatures to record lows Saturday and Sunday nights.
Sleet and snow mixed with rain has been reported Saturday from the Tampa Bay area to near and north of Orlando, the first time snow or sleet has occurred in west-central Florida since Jan. 8, 1996, the National Weather Service in Tampa said.
The immediate Tampa Bay area hasn't seen snow since Dec. 23, 1989.
While citrus growers fared well on Friday night as temperatures remained above critical levels in the heart of the citrus belt, worries are intensifying as a strong high pressure system bears down on the area.
The NWS has issued a freeze warning for much of central and southern Florida from 9 p.m. EST Saturday to 9 a.m. EST on Sunday, meaning temperatures are expected to dip from 27 F to 32 F for three or more hours over a widespread area.
Citrus sustains damage when the mercury falls below 28 degrees Fahrenheit for three or more hours.
"We will undoubtedly suffer some damage to this season's crop tomorrow [Sunday] a.m. and again on Monday a.m.," said Fran Becker, president of Lakeland-based Florida Citrus Mutual and vice president of fruit procurement for Peace River Citrus Products Inc. in Arcadia, Fla.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Exactly. Here in the Charlotte area, the low temps for the last week, plus the predicted lows for tonight and tomorrow night: 21º, 15º, 17º, 18º, 20º, 19º, 20º, 17º, 17º.
Nothing at all unusual to have a cold front sweep through, and drop the nighttime temperatures into the teens -- happens two or three times a winter. Even into the single digits once in a great while. But only for a night or two, usually followed by a quick warmup. I don't think I've ever seen nine straight nights with temps like that in Charlotte before.
[Cold in Texas also.]
I’m in South central Texas, about 25 miles from the coast, and it was 17* last night. Supposed to be about that tonight too.
Everything in my flowerbeds is brown and dead.
There is no question that this is the coldest winter in Florida since I moved here 25 years ago.
.
15°F here right now
- and dropping I am told!
That’s interesting that it’s humid there even in winter. A coworker moved up here from Fort Walton Beach and he would always complain about how the air here was so bone-dry in winter that his skin would crack and bleed. (yup, it afflicts all of us here)
I have been told and I believe it to be true, that there is a difference between ‘dry cold’ and ‘damp cold’. When my aunts used to visit from Pennsylvania in the winter, they said the damp cold here was sharper and felt colder.
When I visited Pa one winter, and it was snowing, it was a ‘dry cold’ and I walked around with my coat open.
Just reading your post and I posted something similar below. Most people don’t realize this is true.
Post #47
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2424960/posts?page=47#47
I have seen 30 below in Michigan, 20 below in Kansas, e.g.
But I have never been so uncomfortable as in 40 degree weather in Central Alabama. Bone-chilling.
FYI - That link takes us to this page.
.
Interesting about wet/dry cold potlatch
When your ears start falling off it is getting too cold
[But I have never been so uncomfortable as in 40 degree weather in Central Alabama. Bone-chilling. ]
That’s interesting and you verify what I wrote.
Sometime I need to do some research on that topic, lol.
Oh, you meant to do that. Got ya. Those lizards falling dead out of the trees in Florida are illustrative of the point perhaps. Would really like a meteorologists to clarify the difference. A humidity reading of 86 % in the upper Midwest does not feel anywhere near as thick as the ocean coasts can get.
[FYI - That link takes us to this page.]
Right. It was supposed to take you to my comment in post #47, lol.
[Interesting about wet/dry cold potlatch]
- and true. I’ve already had a couple of comments about it.
When I was young, I spent many nights lighting smudge pots to save the oranges. Some years we failed. One year we even lost a number of trees.
Good luck to the Floridian orchard owners.
I lived in Denver for a few years and it’s true, the dry air cold is much less debilitating than the humid cold in Florida, for example. In the 20s here now in west central Florida.
Light snow flurries mixed with rain reported in West Palm Beach, western Boynton Beach
That juxtaposition sounds scary from a potential fire point of view.
I would used only non-exposed element sort of heaters in that situations, like oil-filled convective heaters.
Glad I spent money ten years ago insulating and re-glazing my old mobile home up in here in Washington State. A small ventless propane heater (~20,000 BTU) will keep it at 65 even when it is 0F outside. Furnace doesn't even have to come on except to warm it up to 70 in the morning.
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