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I'm a Minnesota Girl, living in the south. I tell my friends I try not to talk and think like a Yankee, but sometimes I slip up!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

$115 Million and Counting



We have no reason to complain about the weather here in Florida, given the storms up the east coast, the cold, the snow, the airport delays.

But we have had an unusual December (global warming?), much colder than any I've experienced here. Usually we have a week or two in January where we flirt with temps below 40 degrees. This week, it has been in the teens (19 degrees to be exact) overnight, after two prior weeks of bone chilling nights for those of us who spend most of the winter in Bermudas (shorts, that is). Tonight will be better, and it promises to warm up over the New Year Weekend. But the average HIGH temperature in Tampa so far this month, is 53.

Around the bay area is a large farming belt. Strawberries, citrus, winter vegetables .... and tropical fish farms.

Journey is still out on the effect on strawberries and citrus...they are being closely monitored. But through December 20th, the loss on vegetable and fish crops?

$115 MILLION !!! The state believes the cold snap is on its way to a $273 million loss in December. Ugh. This after a 30% crop loss from our freeze LAST January. More economic woe, and you may feel the impact on your peppers and green bean consumption over the next two months.

5 comments:

Marion said...

Thanks for the warning. I'd better get Ray to till me up a bigger garden next year! The weather has been nuts here...25 degrees one night, then 75 two days later. It's really rough on my poor bones. LOL!

I hope you have a wonderful new year, girlie.

Love & Blessings,
Marion

Pam said...

I would trade weather with you. It's been unusually hot here, tho, we did get some much-needed rain.

I miss my cold weather. I miss last year's multi snow days!

Bob said...

We had a wonderful white Christmas in Nashville, very unusual for us. Came out of church at midnight Christmas Eve and it was snowing like crazy. I know you Floridians are wondering what in the world is going on down there!

Serena said...

Wow, it's just cold all over. We're finally warming up here after some truly frigid, bone-chilling weather -- and a white Christmas. The high 50s over the weekend will seem like summer.:)

Kelly said...

As Marion said, we've had the drastic temperature swings and I think they're worse than the cold...as much as I don't like that.

I read about the tropical fish farm losses in my paper and that really made me sad. Perhaps because I keep tropical fish? Sad.