Cold in Eastern Washington Pt 2

With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. Another real test of winter weather conditions has kept growers east of the Cascades on their popsicle toes.

2017 came in with a low-pressure blast of frigid temperatures and a decent layer of snow in many areas...

NIC LOYD ... "Similar to some of the events we've already seen, just a few days ago we had the early January that was really the second main cold blast of the year beyond the mid-December event that was really the first major one. We had some sub-zero temperatures in Central and Eastern Washington."

But WSU Meteorologist Nic Loyd says it's certainly much different than we've seen the past couple of years ...

NIC LOYD ... "Certainly, I would say it's an interesting and, I would say, a noteworthy winter in its own right, but then again I would say the sense of a lot of folks is even more extreme that it really is. Again, just because we've become accustom, I mean basically long sort of monthly and seasonal we have record warmth from mid-2014 all the way through November and then just the last little over a month, suddenly finally, we finally have colder-than-normal conditions. So, it seems pretty stark, but we're finally making up for lost-time after very warm conditions the last couple of years."

He says it's fortunate the cold didn't hit us too suddenly and the crops appear to have had sufficient time to build up enough cold-hardiness.

Loyd says in the near-term, it looks like we're in for a little relief with temps warming up a bit, but adds, that brings about the possibility of flooding.