Frost Covers Eastern U.S.; Crops Periled

Thermometers sank to record lows today across the eastern third of the nation, with frost all the way south into Alabama, and apple and peach crops in New Jersey and West Virginia were nipped in the bud.

Record or record-tying lows for the date were reported from more than three dozen cities, from Boston, at 26, south to Jacksonville, Fla., 37, and Meridian, Miss., 33, the National Weather Service said. For some cities it was the coldest for any April day on record.

Elkins, W.Va., in the Appalachian Mountains, chilled down to 3 degrees, 15 degrees below the previous record for the date--set in 1900. It also was the coldest spot in the 48 contiguous states.

Other records were tied or broken, mostly in the teens and 20s, in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia.

In New Jersey, the nation’s fifth-largest peach producer, two days of frost killed up to 75% of the blossoms, growers reported.

“It looks pretty bad. It looks thin. You can’t tell percentagewise, but it’s not too good,” said Hank Rizzotte, an owner of Glossy Fruit Farms.

New Jersey’s $22-million peach industry suffered $14 million in cold damage in 1984.

Lilly Hoover, director of the National Peach Council in Martinsburg, W.Va., said Pennsylvania and South Carolina had already lost about half of their crop to cold during the winter and Georgia reported damage to up to 60% of its orchards.

California, the nation’s largest peach producer at about 440 million pounds annually, should be able to meet all market demand, she said.

A “significant” portion of West Virginia’s apple crop probably was wiped out, a West Virginia University agriculture specialist said today.