RALEIGH — At 4 pm today I received this photo from Georgia Love, NCDA Agronomist. She wrote in her text: “Snow, record cold and hail all in one week! These are Camarosa in Robeson County. Some strawberries in Robeson and Bladen Cos. got hit hard by hail on Saturday. Any suggestions?” Editor’s note, in tomorrow morning’s advisory I will make some suggestions on things “to do” when you have a hail incident. In Virginia, where I now live, it is common practice for agents to complete a County Agricultural Damage Assessment Report after a freeze event such as was experienced last week. Cooperative Extension agent, Roy Flanagan (VA Beach), surveyed 10 strawberry operations on March 16th to document freeze losses, and this is the form he used ag-damage-assessment . He stated in his narrative that some of his most senior/experienced growers in 4-county area described the seriousness of last week’s event as: “unheard of”…”worse ever”…”equivalent to a 100 year flood”
Multi-state update
There are now strong indications that by next weekend the large scale weather pattern is shifting towards one that favors a warming trend for our forecast region, but we do have another cold spell on its way this week! According to my afternoon Skybit for Clayton, NC (Fig. 1), we will be seeing temperatures just below 32 F in the strawberry canopy at this location on Thursday and Friday mornings.
Fig. 1. Clayton Skybit issued Monday afternoon – there is potential for minimum temperatures in the canopy at this location to drop slightly below 32 on both Thursday and Friday mornings. In examining AWIS hourly data for nearby Raleigh-Durham, as well as for Burlington, NC, it would appear that moderate winds “may” keep frost from forming on Thursday morning, but as we learned today from VA grower Tom Baker, “If you are depending on the wind to keep you safe…DON’T!!!” I would definitely recommend being prepared for frost protect for both Wed/Thur (3/22-3/23) and Thur/Fri. (3/23-3/24).
Over in Virginia, I see that my evening Skybit for a location west of Richmond (Moseley) is showing the possibility of reaching 33 F in the canopy on Wed morning (3/22)
This might be a good time to evaluate the AWIS detailed hourly forecast for a town or city closest to your strawberry farm operation for this Wed-Thur-Fri. In this advisory we regularly provide this information for NC, MD, VA, SC, GA and KY (see below).
NC
10-DAY DETAILED HOURLY WEATHER FORECASTS
MD
10-DAY DETAILED HOURLY WEATHER FORECASTS
Virginia
10-DAY DETAILED HOURLY WEATHER FORECASTS
South Carolina
10-DAY DETAILED HOURLY WEATHER FORECASTS
Georgia
10-DAY DETAILED HOURLY WEATHER FORECASTS
Kentucky
10-DAY DETAILED HOURLY WEATHER FORECASTS
— Dr. Barclay Poling, Former Professor and Extension Specialist, Strawberries and Muscadines, Horticultural Science – NC State University
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