Winter blast threatens California’s citrus crop by Steph Ball
While a winter storm has been causing chaos across central states of the US, bringing snow falls, widespread ice and freezing temperatures, the west has not been left out.
On Friday, the cold winter blast which has been heading south from Canada, rolled into California with plunging temperatures threatening the states citrus crop.
As the cold descended on Friday, the Governor of California declared a state of emergency. Fearing for people’s safety he ordered that armouries and other buildings should be opened and made accessible to the homeless to protect them from the bitter cold.
The freezing temperatures have already destroyed millions of dollars of crops and with the cold weather expected to last into early next week there is a real fear for the states citrus crop. A three day freeze in December 1998 destroyed much of the crop at a cost of 700 million US Dollars, but the worst freeze was in 1990 when the whole crop was wiped out.
A new record was set over Friday night for Monterey with the temperature dipping to 27F (-3C), one degree below the previous record set in 1963. Sacramento tied its record low of 22F (-6C) which was set back in 1949.
Even the sunny south of California did not escape with temperatures at Lancaster dipping to just 7F (-14C). Growers were reported to have pulled out all stops to try and protect their crops, building bonfires and setting up large fans to try and keep the cold at bay.
California would normally be much milder at this time of year so the cold snap has taken them and visitors to the state, by surprise. It even brought a rare dusting of snow to the Monclair, Chino and Riverside areas.
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