O.C. Growers Keep Frost Watch Over Many Crops

Orange County growers were up until the early hours on frost watch Wednesday, and will go to bed with the dawn for the next few days as nighttime temperatures continue to hit an annual low, dipping to near freezing and threatening local crops.

A low of 40 was recorded in the city of Orange on Tuesday night, but some growers said they saw the mercury dip to 32 degrees overnight. Weather experts said the region hasn’t seen temperatures that low since it hit 40 on Jan. 7, 1999. More bone-chilling weather is expected over the next few days.

A frost advisory was in effect Tuesday and Wednesday nights, but a Santa Ana wind kicked up early Wednesday and warmed things up to above freezing, said Allan Price, president of the Orange County Farm Bureau.

Temperatures were expected to dip to near freezing early this morning, and overnight lows will remain in the high 30s and low 40s at least through Monday, said Bob Lindmeyer, a meteorologist with Madison, Wis.-based Weather Central, which provides forecasts for The Times.

A low pressure trough in the upper atmosphere over the Southwest United States is producing the dry, cooler temperatures throughout the region as it shifts gradually eastward through Monday, Lindmeyer said.

Price said the cold hit hard in Irvine, where he saw temperatures reach freezing. “It did drop down to 32 for a very short time,” Price said, “but the winds came in and kept it at a 48-degree level.”

Arctic air coming in from the north and cold air from the desert mean the start of frost season for growers--a time that typically lasts from late December through March, Price said.

Local growers did not report any problems Wednesday with strawberries, tomatoes, peppers and avocados--the top four crops by value in Orange County behind nursery stock and flowers. Area nurseries, likewise, reported no problems.

But farther north in the Central Valley, orange growers dug in and hoped that the state’s electricity supply would hold out to keep their crops from freezing. Heavily dependent on electricity to power the giant fans that warm the 70% of their crop still on the tree, orange growers there face a potential double whammy: blackout threats and plummeting temperatures.

“We’re terribly exposed,” said Joel Nelsen, president of California Citrus Mutual, a trade association of 800 growers. “The loss of power for a short time could wreak untold damage on our crop.”

In December 1998, a lingering cold snap destroyed 85% of the orange crop, resulting in 14,000 layoffs and costing $600 million to $700 million in losses in the valley, Nelsen said.

Orange County Deputy Agricultural Commissioner John Ellis said local orange groves aren’t in that type of danger.

“It takes temperatures below freezing for several hours to affect the fruit,” he said. “We haven’t had that, and it’s not a very common thing for Orange County. That’s one of the reasons groves were originally planted here.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.