Cold in Eastern Washington

Cold in Eastern Washington

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. Winter has officially arrived in many parts of the Pacific Northwest.

Frigid temperatures and a hefty blanket of snow are greeting farmers in many parts of Eastern Washington.

But, WSU Meteorologist Nic Loyd says the way things played out, it's not necessarily bad news ...

NIC LOYD ... "The next couple of days it's going to be cold in a lot of Washington actually, at least at night it's going to get a little bit colder before it starts to get warmer. But, luckily, when it comes to crops or really anything in the environment that's environmentally sensitive of course, and the fact that a lot of the cold-hardiness has already been accumulated is certainly a helpful thing. There's so many crops and different varieties that we look at. I'm certainly not giving the "all clear" when it looks like there could be places with sub-zero temperatures the next few mornings."

Loyd says history tells us, it could have been much worse ...

NIC LOYD ... "Where you really get in trouble is something like when you think back to 20-10 right? The Thanksgiving Freeze, where it had been fairly mild that November and then all of the sudden temperatures plummet so you have really cold Arctic outbreak, which would be unusual at any point in the winter, but it happens in late November and you go from some places with highs in the 50's and then suddenly, just a few days later, it's below zero."

Loyd says we've already had a couple of good tests for cold-hardiness this winter and most of the crops have held up pretty well.

On the bright side, the mountain snowpack looks promising for Spring and Summer water supplies.

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