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Freezing temperatures across Southeast threatens crops
'People who go to sunrise service will probably remember Easter of 2007'

Two weeks into spring, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Snow flurries fell in metro Atlanta and parts of North Georgia overnight. The record cold was expected to last through the weekend across the Southeast, inspiring farmers and parents alike to bundle their crops and children.

Last week felt more like the start of summer, with temperatures approaching 80 degrees in Atlanta. On Saturday morning, temperatures in the metro area were in the upper 20s _ with wind gusts of up to 30 miles per hour making it feel more like the teens.

Forecasters said it was going to stay cold Saturday and plunge down to the middle 20s on Easter morning across the Southeast _ meaning that Easter frills, bonnets and sandals will be replaced with coats, scarves and socks.

Georgia climatologist David Stooksbury said the northern half of the state has usually shaken off chilly temperatures by the end of March, but that freezing temperatures have lingered on into April in years past.

Still, this weekend's freeze is rare.

"People who go to sunrise service will probably remember Easter of 2007 because it was so cold," Stooksbury said. "And it's been so warm lately, this is kind of a shock to our systems."

This weekend, which also marked the start of the baseball season, found Atlanta Braves fans huddled up in blankets at Turner Field. And while Southern tradition finds many people planting corn, tomatoes, beans and squash in backyard gardens on Good Friday, gardeners instead were bundling their plants.

The chilly temperatures could also threaten crops like blueberries, said Stanley Scarborough, production manager of Sunnyridge Farms, with fields in Baxley and Homerville, Ga.

"We're concerned," said Scarborough, who is also the vice president of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.

"At 26 or 27 degrees, you would probably lose half of the Georgia crop," valued at about $20 million to $25 million dollars, Scarborough said.

But he said he believed temperatures will more likely be around 29 to 32 degrees, which could affect between 15 and 20 percent of the crop, at a loss of $10 million to $15 million.

Scarborough said the majority of the state's blueberry crop, a variety called rabbit-eye, is normally harvested around June 1. This year, the bushes bloomed early because of the recent warm temperatures, Scarborough said, and the blueberries are not able to withstand freezing temperatures.

In Alabama, growers scrambled to protect early-blooming peach orchards. State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks said if temperatures stay at 28 to 29 degrees for two hours, with this stage of peach growth, there could be "very severe" damage to the crop.

"If we stay there for four hours, we could possibly lose the peach crop," he said.

The sudden shift in temperatures can be lethal to plants, said Chuck McSpadden of Apple Valley Orchard in Bradley County in East Tennessee.

"At the stage we're in, a temperature of 25-26 degrees will kill 90 percent of this year's crop," he said.

Sunday threatens to set the record as the coldest Easter morning in parts of Tennessee.

"We're going to be in record territory, for sure," said Jim Moser, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Nashville. Sunday morning lows were expected to be in the low 20s for much of the state.

Nashville could see the coldest Easter on record _ the forecast low of 22 degrees would beat the current record set on March 24, 1940, when the morning temperature was 24 degrees.

The National Weather Service is also predicting record low temperatures in the mid-20s in the South Carolina Midlands. The coldest temperatures will come just before sunrise _ when many churches hold early morning Easter services.

"Our musicians are worried about their fingers," said the Rev. Michael Bingham, pastor of Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Columbia, S.C. The church's sunrise service usually held in a courtyard will be moved indoors.

The usual harbingers of spring _ Easter, spring break, baseball, and planting season _ along with what has felt like a heat wave in recent weeks, have conspired to give people a false sense of the season, said Stooksbury, who also teaches engineering and atmospheric sciences at the University of Georgia.

"Once it starts getting into the 70s day after day, it's a little hard to fight off that urge to go out there and want to plant our summer flowers and vegetables," he said.

But....but....but.....there is this global warming thing.....you know where man has created such a problem that the overall temperature of the earth is increasing and all over the place there is much warmer temperatures.....it is so bad that in 20 years we could be in a tropical region here in the South while Brazil could be a huge desert.......


yeah right.  I believe the record lows during this season is God saying....DUH!

Yep, He's still saying "I am in control."

Jacksonville, Fl had a record low for Resurrection Day 31 degrees.

Here in Central Florida we didn't get up to 60 degrees  :-\


I wonder if Al is now going to say they did such a great job stopping the global warming that it is now a global ice age.  ;D ;D ;D ;D

If he ONLY knew

if he only knew...... like the song goes: Who told the sun where to rise in the morning and Who to told the ocean you can only come this far. And Who told the moon where to hide till evening, Whose Words alone can catch a falling star........

HE IS IN CONTROL ... Hellelujah

AMEN!

Charlotte shatters 1923 cold record
Temperatures drops to 21 degrees yesterday, most frigid in history

A historic cold weather outbreak shattered records this morning in Charlotte and elsewhere in the Carolinas, producing bone-chilling conditions for Easter sunrise services.

Forecasters say a slow warming trend will begin today, but we face one more night of freezing weather.

The polar air outbreak that began Thursday reached the bottom this morning, when temperatures dropped to 21 degrees at 7 a.m. at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.

That not only broke the low-temperature record for the date, but it was the coldest for any April day in Charlotte history.

Previously, the coldest temperature ever recorded in the month of April was 24 degrees, on April 1, 1923.

The coldest temperature previously on April 8 was 30 degrees, back in 1961.

At the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport, this morning’s unofficial low of 24 degrees also was the coldest ever in April – breaking the mark of 25 degrees set on April 20, 1983.

Charlotte’s unofficial low temperature reading this morning was among the coldest in the area. Albemarle had a low of 18 degrees, but most other nearby reporting stations – including Monroe, Rock Hill and Gastonia – had lows in the middle 20s. This morning’s cold temperatures in the Carolinas are merely a part of the story.

Sleet fell Saturday afternoon in parts of Texas, including the Dallas and Austin metropolitan areas. It was the first time in 70 years that frozen precipitation fell in April in those areas.

Up to 10 inches of snow accumulated in parts of North Carolina’s mountains, including a 1.5-inch snowfall Saturday morning in Asheville – the first recorded April snowfall in that city in 20 years.

To the north, along the southeast shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario, it’s a winter wonderland.

Suburbs to the southeast of Cleveland have reported a foot of snow, and the snow belt areas of Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties could get another 6 to 12 inches today. Heavy snow also is falling southwest of Buffalo and near Watertown, N.Y.

The Cleveland Indians’ home opener, postponed Friday due to snow, was snowed-out again Saturday. The Indians hope to be able to play the Seattle Mariners in a doubleheader again today, but snow was falling this morning in Cleveland.

The cold air gradually is relenting, allowing for more seasonal conditions to re-assert themselves.

Forecasters expect temperatures to reach the middle 50s today, with lows tonight in Charlotte tumbling back into the middle 20s.

Highs on Monday are forecast in the upper 50s, and temperatures in the 60s finally will return Tuesday.

Conditions more like mid-April are forecast for the rest of the week.

Cold snap postpones spring festivities
'At 26 or 27 degrees, you would probably lose half of the Georgia crop'

An unseasonable cold snap put a chill on Easter Sunday services across the Southeast and much of the rest of the country, moving some events indoors and adding layers over spring frocks.

Even baseball had to take another time out—because of snow.

Across much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation, Easter celebrants swapped frills, bonnets and sandals for coats, scarves and heavy socks. Baseball fans huddled in blankets and, instead of spring planting, backyard gardeners were bundling their crops.

Two weeks into spring, Easter morning temperatures were in the upper 30s along the Gulf Coast and in the single digits in northern Minnesota and the Dakotas. Atlanta had a low of 30 degrees, with a wind chill of 23, the National Weather Service said. The same reading hit New York City's Fifth Avenue, celebrated in song for the traditional Easter Parade of spring finery.

Despite the chill, nearly 1,000 people attended the annual sunrise service at Georgia's Stone Mountain Park, as a slight breeze whipped over the granite monument. The service usually attracts 10,000.

Later in the afternoon, about 5,000 people braved the wind and chill in Homer, a small town in the foothills of the north Georgia mountains that claims one of the nation's largest Easter egg hunts.

"We've had cold weather before, but this might have been the coldest," said Sandra Garrison, whose family hid more than 100,000 plastic eggs on their farm, continuing a 48-year tradition. "They had their coats on for sure."

Nashville, Tenn., bottomed out Sunday at 23 degrees, knocking one degree off the Easter Sunday record set March 24, 1940.

East of Cleveland in the city of Chardon, about 16 inches of snow has fallen, and forecasters predicted the region could get another 10 inches before the storms tapered off late Sunday. Temperatures were expected to remain unseasonably cold through much of the week.

The Cleveland Indians tried all weekend to kick off their series against the Seattle Mariners, but were stymied when the weather forced Friday's home opener and subsequent double headers on Saturday and Sunday to be postponed.

Officials in Morrison, Colo., canceled Sunday's annual sunrise service at the Red Rocks Amphitheater because seats and stairways were covered with ice.

Morning lows in Columbia, S.C., dropped to the upper 20s, the weather service said. The usual courtyard service at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Columbia had to be moved indoors, the Rev. Michael Bingham said.

"Our musicians are worried about their fingers," he said Saturday as the church's plans were being changed.

Farmers were worried about the impact the weather could have on crops. Blueberries could be particularly affected, said Stanley Scarborough, production manager of Sunnyridge Farms, which has fields in Baxley and Homerville, Ga.

Scarborough said the majority of the state's blueberry crop, a variety called rabbit-eye, is normally harvested around June 1. This year, the bushes bloomed early because of a wave of warm temperatures last week. Scarborough the blueberries are not able to withstand freezing temperatures.

"At 26 or 27 degrees, you would probably lose half of the Georgia crop," valued at about $20 million to $25 million dollars, Scarborough said.

I would love to see it snow in July, just to show people that it is in fact God who is in control.  Then again, they would probably just claim that it is due to some new global phenomenon.  I believe the Bible says we will not to know the seasons in the latter days.  I looked for scripture in support of this, but was unable to find anything.  I will continue to search, but maybe I am mistaken.