Much Cooler Summer Temps in Southern California, Fruits & Vegetables May Not Ripen
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on August 11, 2010
Cooler summer temps have prevented fruits and vegetables in southern California from ripening | Photo credit: Scott M. Liddell, MorgueFile.com
If southern California doesn’t heat up soon, this unusually cool weather for summer will impact the ripening of thousands of crops of fruits and vegetables.
From Whittier Daily News, Temperatures continue well below average in Southern California:
It hasn’t been the coolest summer on record, but it’s been close, forecasters say.
The average temperature in July was 79 degrees, five degrees below normal, and the first eight days of this month also have been five to six degrees below normal, weather experts said.
That could put Southern California on track for a near-record-low summer, but it’s still too early to say, according to weather experts. The Los Angeles area, in fact, has had below-normal temperatures every month since April.
“We normally get this kind of weather pattern when we are transitioning from an El Niño year to a La Niña year,” National Weather Service meteorologist Jaimie Meier said. “It sets up this trough of moisture over the West Coast, and that’s what’s been happening. We end up with cooler-than-normal temperatures and cooler coastal waters.”
On Monday forecasters were monitoring a high-pressure system developing to the north that could swing over Southern California by Sunday and heat things into the mid-90s in some inland areas, she said.
It may be too early to be feeling any effects of La Niña, Jet Propulsion Laboratory climatologist Bill Patzert said.
During a La Niña occurrence, certain ocean temperatures around the equator cool, resulting in wetter winter weather for Northern California and a drier winter in Southern California.
“Some would like to blame it on La Niña, but that La Niña is a long ways away,” Patzert said. “The pattern we’re seeing is that the Northern Hemisphere is having record-breaking heat and we’re getting near-record lows.”
He attributed the cooler temps to a series of low-pressure systems off the Southern California coast this summer – except for one above-normal week in early July – and the “Catalina eddy effect” that pushes low coastal clouds farther inland and keeps temperatures cooler everywhere except in the mountains and deserts.
“Some people are singing the blues, but I’m enjoying this,” Patzert said.
So are people with outdoor jobs like Jill Morganelli, the horticulture curator in charge of plant life at the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia.
“The benefits are that gardeners are much more comfortable and are really enjoying being out there,” she said. “I’m loving it. My productivity is going way up.”
But some plants could be affected by the cold nights and cooler mornings, Morganelli said. Citing only what she’s seen happening this summer at the Arboretum, where overnight lows have dipped into the mid-50s, Morganelli said she’s noticed more yellow in the leaves of some flowering plants, particularly roses.
“The fruits and vegetables, the tomatoes and a lot of the citrus and things like raspberries are not ripening up because it’s not getting hot long enough,” she said, adding that some fruit could taste less sweet because less sun means less sugar content.
Morganalli said she has picked just one fully ripened tomato so far from her own summer garden.
With more moisture in the ground backyard gardeners should water no more than three times a week, she advised.
How adversely could this affect our nation’s food supplies? Many people are unaware that California is a major agricultural resource. Here are some statistics on California crops and production:
California has been the number one food and agricultural producer in the United States for more than 50 consecutive years.
More than half the nation’s fruit, nuts, and vegetables come from here.
California is the nation’s number one dairy state.
California’s leading commodity is milk and cream. Grapes are second.
California’s leading export crop is almonds.
Nationally, products exclusively grown (99% or more) in California include almonds, artichokes, dates, figs, kiwifruit, olives, persimmons, pistachios, prunes, raisins, clovers, and walnuts.
From 70 to 80% of all ripe olives are grown in California.
California is the nation’s leading producer of strawberries, averaging 1.4 billion pounds of strawberries or 83% of the country’s total fresh and frozen strawberry production. Approximately 12% of the crop is exported to Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Japan primarily. The value of the California strawberry crop is approximately $700 million with related employment of more than 48,000 people.
California produces 25% of the nation’s onions and 43% of the nation’s green onions.
Gilroy, California, “Garlic Capitol of the World,” has hosted 2 million at the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival.
To add to the nation’s growing concerns of potentially impacted fruits/vegetable crops coming out of California, Americans now have this to worry about… reported by Gateway Pundit: As Michelle Returns From Spanish Extravaganza Obama Cuts Food Stamps to Nation’s Poor. And this: No More Sweets For You!… Runaway Judge Bans Genetically Enhanced Sugar Beets
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And don’t forget – the federal judge and the Delta Smelt. That’s already knocked out much of the San Joaquin valley which used to produce a lot of foods. Almond groves are now just dead sticks. Here in PA the heat and humidity have taken out everything *but* my regular tomatoes. Should be a fun year for food prices.