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CNN Live At Daybreak
Florida's Citrus Crops Threatened by Freeze
Aired January 24, 2003 - 06:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Some Floridians may be shivering, not just due to freezing temperatures, but because their livelihood is in danger.
CNN's John Zarrella joins us live from a Florida citrus grove.
Good morning to you -- John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fredricka.
Well, you know, it's a balmy, about 33 degrees here this morning. We're in southwest Florida -- in south central west Florida, Immokalee, Florida in the Immokalee Groves, in a citrus grove here.
And I want to show you, I've got our thermometer out here, and we've been inching down a little bit the last couple of hours. You know, just before daybreak is traditionally the coldest part of the day. We're about 33 degrees, just above freezing. And actually, that's good news, because here in southwest Florida, about 1,000 acres of orange grove here, these are all juice oranges on the trees here. The temperature has to get below 28 degrees for more than four hours in order to do any significant damage to the crop or the trees, and that just did not happen.
We talked to one of the growers out here a little while ago, and he was saying they really did -- to use that expression -- dodge a bullet again this time.
Now, in the 1980s, of course, there were three devastating freezes up in central and north Florida, wiped out the citrus crop, a billion dollar industry back then. And most of the orange production has moved south, here to places like Collier County, where we are, and Lee County.
And this is one of those oranges. We just pulled this off a little while ago, so we could show it to you, one of these juices oranges you may be having for breakfast in the not-too-distant future. A lot of good juice still coming out of that orange. There's no ice in it. That's one of the things that the growers look for is the ice in the orange, not there. That's a good sign for them.
Don't know how the orange growers a little further up in the state fared, but here you can see, you know, no, it doesn't appear that there is any kind of frost even on these trees this morning. This one, a nice, big, big orange here.
So, good news for the growers so far. No reports yet, Fredricka, of any kind of damage, vegetable crops perhaps hurt a little bit worse maybe up further north in the state -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Johnson's (ph), a nice, cold orange juice, and thankfully no freezing -- that's good news so far.
Thanks a lot, John Zarrella.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired January 24, 2003 - 06:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Some Floridians may be shivering, not just due to freezing temperatures, but because their livelihood is in danger.
CNN's John Zarrella joins us live from a Florida citrus grove.
Good morning to you -- John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fredricka.
Well, you know, it's a balmy, about 33 degrees here this morning. We're in southwest Florida -- in south central west Florida, Immokalee, Florida in the Immokalee Groves, in a citrus grove here.
And I want to show you, I've got our thermometer out here, and we've been inching down a little bit the last couple of hours. You know, just before daybreak is traditionally the coldest part of the day. We're about 33 degrees, just above freezing. And actually, that's good news, because here in southwest Florida, about 1,000 acres of orange grove here, these are all juice oranges on the trees here. The temperature has to get below 28 degrees for more than four hours in order to do any significant damage to the crop or the trees, and that just did not happen.
We talked to one of the growers out here a little while ago, and he was saying they really did -- to use that expression -- dodge a bullet again this time.
Now, in the 1980s, of course, there were three devastating freezes up in central and north Florida, wiped out the citrus crop, a billion dollar industry back then. And most of the orange production has moved south, here to places like Collier County, where we are, and Lee County.
And this is one of those oranges. We just pulled this off a little while ago, so we could show it to you, one of these juices oranges you may be having for breakfast in the not-too-distant future. A lot of good juice still coming out of that orange. There's no ice in it. That's one of the things that the growers look for is the ice in the orange, not there. That's a good sign for them.
Don't know how the orange growers a little further up in the state fared, but here you can see, you know, no, it doesn't appear that there is any kind of frost even on these trees this morning. This one, a nice, big, big orange here.
So, good news for the growers so far. No reports yet, Fredricka, of any kind of damage, vegetable crops perhaps hurt a little bit worse maybe up further north in the state -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Johnson's (ph), a nice, cold orange juice, and thankfully no freezing -- that's good news so far.
Thanks a lot, John Zarrella.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
