Cold Prompts State Of Emergency

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has declared a state of emergency and issued an executive order to ease trucking restrictions to expedite the transport of freeze-vulnerable crops.

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The order, which will remain in effect for 14 days, directs the state Department of Transportation to ease the weight, height, length and width restrictions for commercial vehicles transporting freeze-vulnerable crops to processing sites. Time is of the essence as overnight low temperatures continue to keep growers in full cold-protection mode.

According to Mike Sparks of Florida Citrus Mutual, field representatives have been out in the groves since early this morning gathering information following last night’s cold event. Preliminary reports indicate there might be isolated areas that have minor fruit damage however, temperatures do not appear to have dipped low enough for long enough duration to create substantial problems.

Damage Reports

Sparks said parts of the growing region received some minimal damage in the colder locations especially south off of the Lake Wales Ridge. There were isolated areas with temperatures reported by growers as low as 22 to 23 degrees. There have been some reports of ice cut in some fruit as well.

Reports from the Indian River region indicate that the grapefruit crop came through with no damage, while there was very minimal scattered damage on the orange crop.

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Crop-protection measures and damage assessments will continue as unusually cold temperatures are predicted to remain in place and be followed up by another cold front expected to make its impact felt across the region this weekend.

According to AccuWeather.com forecasters, Florida fruit and vegetable producers and workers who are taking protective measures from the freeze much of this week will get a break Thursday night and Friday night. However, an Arctic blast with the potential to drive temperatures several degrees lower is waiting on deck.

The new blast will follow a storm bringing a broad area of snow to the eastern two-thirds of the nation, including parts of the Deep South Thursday into Friday.

A second storm system could trek across Florida this weekend, prior to the arrival of the new blast. That storm has the potential to bring some snow to the northern and central parts of the peninsula.
 

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