According to this article in early this morning from citrus grower Chet Townsend, who also puts out a grower e-mail newsletter in addition to maintaining UltimateCitrus.com website, Florida citrus likely dodged a cold bullet in last night’s freeze. By the way, we recorded a low of 25 degrees in N W Marion County just outside of Ocala this morning at 8 a m.
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LaBELLE, Fla. (January, 3, 2008) by Chet Townsend, UltimateCitrus.com — It looks like the Florida Citrus Crop has escaped any damaging cold weather. With the winds staying up all night, minimum temperatures, as of 6:00 am Thursday morning, are very similar, throughout much of the citrus belt. According to both the FAWN weather network and the private grower AquaSpy AgWISE network, minimum temperatures have ranged from 27 at Ocklawaha in southern Marion County to 30 in Immokalee, in Collier County, to 33 near Indiantown in Martin County, and 35 at Fort Pierce in St. Lucie County on the east coast.
In Polk County, the coldest temperature was at Lake Alfred at 28. At Lake Wales, the minimum temperature was 30. In eastern interior Hendry County, temperatures were at 29-32. Except for maybe southern Marion County, where very little commercial citrus remains, durations below 28 has been very minimal, if at all. Therefore, there should be little if any damage to the citrus crop in Florida. There is no threatening cold weather forecasted for the next week.