California Citrus Avoids Damaging Cold

EXETER, Calif. (AP) - Citrus growers in California's San Joaquin Valley say potentially damaging cold failed to materialize overnight.

California Citrus Mutual President Joel Nelson says the forecasts had pointed to a critical night with significant lows into Wednesday morning, but very few locations dipped below 32 degrees for any period of time.

Only a few locations experienced short durations of cold temperatures that required some form of frost protection.

Citrus is grown on more than 200,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley and 75 percent of the crop is still on the trees.

The Citrus Mutual says temperatures in the state's other major producing areas - Ventura, Riverside and Imperial counties - all had temperatures well above thresholds for concern.

The last critical freeze for the industry was December 2013.