Central Valley farmers battle cold nights

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This month's cold weather was brought on by a stable, cool air mass which hovered over Northern California.

Farmers in California's Central Valley have been taking precautions against freezing as nighttime temperatures have dipped into the low 20s in some areas, reported Tim Hearden of Capital Press.

From Dec. 3-10, temperatures dropped as low as 31 degrees in Fresno, 26 degrees in Madera, 27 degrees in Merced, 26 degrees in Napa, 25 in Redding and 27 in Redbluff. Growers in these areas were working to avoid damages like those suffered in 2007, when a freeze caused more than $1.4 billion in damage to citrus, avocados, strawberries, vegetables, nursery stock and other crops, the article said.

In northern areas, freezes blackened the tips of some young walnut tree branches, but those are generally pruned off anyway, said Rick Buchner, a University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Red Bluff, Calif.

"There's been no serious damage in the big wood that I've been called to look at yet," Buchner said.

Posted on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 9:14 AM

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