Unusually Warm Winter Could Be Disastrous For Long Island, NJ Peach Crops

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Remember the unusually warm weather we enjoyed at the beginning of winter? Most people thought it was just peachy, but it turns out the weather was disastrous for actual peaches.

As CBS2's Alice Gainer reported, it could mean consumers are paying more for their favorite peach products.

"All these little spots were blossoms that got killed by the frost," Tom Wickham said.

Wickham knows all about the 'peach massacres of 2016.'

His family has operated a fruit farm on Long Island's North Fork since colonial times. Wickham said he expects it will be harder to harvest a good crop this year.

"I think there will be a shortage in the east all the way from Georgia to the Carolinas up here to New England," Wickham said.

The unusually warm winter weather was the culprit. It tricked the peach crop into flowering early, but when a freeze struck in early April it killed the emerging fruit.

As a result, farmers in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the Hudson River Valley lost 90 percent of their peach crop.

For peach lover Laurie White it's truly bad news.

"That's tough. Sorry to hear that because I like to make peach pie, and I put it in the blender with all kids of fruit," she said.

Wickham said he will still have enough peaches to stock his farm stand when they fully ripen in July, but he said the up and down weather extremes did more damage to his apricot trees.

"We lost a number of apricots because this year the apricots were blooming at the same time," he said.

Wickham said he expects he'll lose half his apricots and ten percent of his strawberries. Now, he's counting on an improving forecast.

"Today, we finally have the sun coming out, so everything is trying to grow as fast as it can and we just have to try to catch up with all the crops," he said.

With peaches in short supply, experts said consumers are almost certain to pay more this year for the naturally sweet treat.

Peach farmers in New Jersey were also hit hard, losing close to half their crop.