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Overnight Florida Freeze Likely Damaged Some Crops

Tribune photo by JIM REED

Ice clings to an orange tree on a farm near Plant City, where the temperature dropped to 28 this morning.

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 22, 2009

Updated: 01/22/2009 03:03 pm

TAMPA - Frost weary residents across the state face one more night of freezing temperatures before forecasters expect a warming trend to begin.

Though temperatures aren't expecting temperatures to drop as low as Wednesday night's Arctic blast, the National Weather Service issued freeze warnings from Hillsborough County south.

Residents from Pasco County north could see a repeat of temperatures in the low 20s that they saw on Wednesday night as the weather service has a hard freeze warning in place.

That means temperatures could be 27 degrees or lower for more than three hours.

But Friday should see a return of afternoons in the 70s, a trend expected to last into next week.

One more night of freezing temperatures is bad news for growers across the state who are still assessing damage to crops from a freeze that penetrated as far south as the Everglades.

Though it will take several days before all of the damage to crops is apparent, subfreezing temperatures in the winter vegetable belt around Lake Okeechobee likely hit the crops hard.

"From the reports we're getting, we expect some significant damage," said Lisa Lochridge, spokeswoman for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association.

Even the normally warmer eastern side of Lake Okeechobee saw freezing temperatures for hours as the thermometer dropped to 23 degrees, she said.

"That spells trouble for sweet corn and snap beans," she said.

But the farmers won't know how hard the crops were hit for at least two or three days. Lettuce takes four or five days before showing damage, she said.

Farmers on the southwest side of the lake also will take a hit. Temperatures dropped below freezing at 2 a.m. around Immakolee.

"There will be significant damage in Immakolee," Lochridge said.

Strawberry growers may have escaped the serious damage from three nights of freezing temperatures, said Ted Campbell, executive director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association.

He said growers are finding some minor damage to blooms that may affect the harvest in five or six weeks. They will have a better idea of any losses in the next few days.

"The fruit looks like it came through well," he said.

Cold weather in November helped toughen plants to withstand this week's freezes, Campbell said.

The temperature hit about 25 in most fields, Campbell said.

Carl Grooms, the owner of Fancy Farms, off County Line Road in southeast Plant City, said the overnight freeze was by far the worst.

"The temperature reached 32 degrees here at 9 p.m., Wednesday night," Grooms said. "It got down to about 24 or 25 degrees between 4 and 5 in the morning. It stayed below freezing until 9 a.m., when we shut down the sprinkler system."

Growers use rotating sprinklers in freezing weather to place a thin coating of ice on the strawberry plants. The constantly regenerated ice crystals help protect the fruit and new blossoms.

"We will pick berries off a plant about 30 to 35 times from December through March," Grooms said. "The plant itself is an evergreen and won't freeze at those temperatures. But the blossoms and very young fruit we protected last night will be ready to pick around Valentine's Day."

Temperatures hovered this morning in the high 20s in eastern Hillsborough County while staying in the 30s in Tampa.

Even normally toasty Pinellas County saw temperatures at the upper edge of the 30s.

Farther north, the thermometer fell to 21 in Brooksville, dropping quickly when winds died around sundown, going from 35 to 28 in an hour.

The freezing temperatures didn't reach Tampa International Airport but came close at 34. They did extend to MacDill Air Force Base, where it registered 31.

The colder temperatures were inland. Balm registered 28, and in Dover it was 27. Vandenberg Airport was 27 at 6 a.m. after temperatures bottomed out there at 25.

Polk County also felt the freeze with 27 in Lakeland and 28 in Bartow.

Reporter George H. Newman contributed to this report. Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731.

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