I wonder if you had a glass or two of orange juice for breakfast this morning. Well if you did you may be interested to know that it possibly cost you a fraction less than usual when you bought it because of bumper harvests due to good weather.

The US department of Agriculture last week forecast a record harvest in Florida, the second biggest orange-producing region after Brazil. The forecast is reported to be estimated around 246 million boxes of oranges, 21% higher than last year's crop. This may all relate to 'frozen' orange juice but never-the-less it hasn't been this cheap since 1977...the good fortunes of the weather...

There are of course many bad fortunes due to weather conditions and there are a few stories around the world today which are proof of this.

After several days of heavy rain in Kazakhstan, a landslide occurred during the early hours of Sunday destroying buildings and also 24 people went missing. The mudslide occurred about 20 kilometres east of the commercial capital Almaty, and although 4 people have been recovered others are still feared buried. Heavy showers in Zharkent just a little further east of the landslide area, received 12mm of rain from heavy showers at the beginning of the weekend, this may not sound like much but this is their whole monthly average, and there are more showers to come.

An avalanche in Oslo, Norway also buried a man, although reports have suggested that he was recovered although his condition is unknown. The avalanche actually caught up with 12 skiers who were skiing down a glacier at the time. It crashed down an area of roughly
3,800 square metres (40,000 square feet) at just before 1230GMT Saturday 13th March. It is unclear why the avalanche occurred although high winds have been reported this weekend and temperatures have been slowly rising.

Back in Britain the temperatures here have been steadily rising. The average temperature for London by way of example for mid-March is 11C (52F), and by the looks of the forecast for this coming Wednesday they could be up to 17C (63F)...we wait and see...

Weather News from the last five days:
13/03/2004
12/03/2004
11/03/2004
10/03/2004
09/03/2004

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