Post by brillbilly on Jan 12, 2010 3:54:05 GMT 10
Icicles hang from an orange tree after it was sprayed with water throughout the night in Plant City, Fla., earlier this week. The water was sprayed to protect the other plants in the nursery from cold weather in the state.
South Carolina officials called an early end to the shrimping season and Florida citrus growers remained on edge Friday as a cold snap persisted across much of the U.S.
Heavy snowfall and icy temperatures prompted dozens of Minnesota schools to close and delayed the opening of some state offices Friday, while wind-chill levels in the Dakotas hovered around 25-degrees below zero.
In the South, arctic blasts of air blew across a region unaccustomed to prolonged subfreezing temperatures, icing roads and threatening crops.
Temperatures have fallen the past several days as much as 20 degrees below normal in parts of the country, and it will feel "brutally cold" this weekend in the Southeast, before the cold starts letting up next week, said Brian Korty, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. He called the cold snap "an event you'd only see every 10 or 20 years. It's just not common to see temperatures that are 20 or 30 degrees below normal over this wide a region for this long."
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources said it would end the state's shrimping season Monday, nearly two weeks ahead of schedule, in order to spare enough shrimp for next season. Some shrimp are expected to die in near-freezing temperatures, said Mel Bell, director of the state office of fisheries management. In 2001, when temperatures plunged, almost all the shrimp were killed off. "It took us two years to recover from that," he said.
Citrus growers in Florida have suffered some losses, said Rusty Wiygul, director of grower affairs at Florida Citrus Mutual, the state's largest growers' association, who added that none had been "devastating."
"We're just sitting in our offices and constantly watching the weather," he said. "It'd be nice if we could run up to the Florida state line and stop the cold, but we can't. All we can really do is a pray a lot."
Certain crops in the South -- mainly peaches and blueberries -- will initially benefit from sub-40-degree temperatures, as they need to undergo a "chilling process," said Charles Hall, executive director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.
But even they won't be able to sustain such weather later in the winter. "We'll be up the creek if we get this kind of weather again in early March, when things are getting ready to bloom," he said. "We'd see significant damage."
Already, Mr. Hall said, the weather is hurting growers of greens throughout the state.
In parts of the Midwest, officials shut or delayed opening schools Friday as storms caused heavy snow drifting and triggered traffic accidents and road closings. Some school districts in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, canceled classes Friday.
Meanwhile, Amtrak suspended service on two routes Friday -- between Chicago and Denver, and St. Paul, Minn., and Seattle -- because of drifting snow in Nebraska.
In Oklahoma, single-digit temperatures, bitter winds and freezing rain shuttered schools, knocked out power and sent residents scurrying to emergency shelters. Ranchers raced to break ice and lay down hay to provide food and water for the state's 5.2 million cattle.
Forecasts of wind chills of 17-degrees below zero prompted Oklahoma City's public schools to close both Thursday and Friday. "People in Minnesota and New York, they may be prepared for it. We're just not," school district spokeswoman Tierney Cook said.
But even as the frigid temperatures caused problems, they could provide relief to the cash-strapped state. Oklahoma relies heavily on tax revenue from natural-gas production, and low gas prices have forced deep cuts in the state budget. November oil and gas tax revenue was down 84% from a year earlier, leading the state government to impose a 10% across-the-board budget cut in December.
The nationwide cold snap has boosted demand for natural gas, which heats more than half of U.S. homes. Oklahoma gas consumption was nearly double the normal level for January, according to gas provider Oklahoma Natural Gas.
Rising demand has pushed natural-gas prices to nearly $6 per million British thermal units from less than $3 in September, boosting state revenue.
online.wsj.com/article/SB126299974705922495.html
the world is changing fast and we are not taking the rap for it