Christmas Freeze Worst Since 1989

    Temperatures dipped into the low 20s on Christmas morning, marking the coldest holiday since the Christmas freeze of 1989. Unlike that year, when a hard freeze brought temperatures into the teens and decimated the area’s citrus industry, early reports on the impact of the Christmas freeze of 2022 indicate less damage to what’s left of the area’s citrus industry, and mostly spared strawberry and other winter crops.
   The Christmas freeze was bookended by two other freezing mornings. On Saturday, Christmas Eve, pockets of North Lake experienced low temperatures in the mid 20s, and on Monday, another, lighter freeze descended on the area, with temperatures dipping into the 30-degree range. On Tuesday, colder areas were still hovering around the freezing mark at sunrise.
   On Tuesday, it was reported that the area had mostly been spared serious crop damage during the freeze.
   “Everything seems OK so far,” said Kris Sutton of Faryna Grove Care and Harvesting. Sutton spent much of his holiday checking groves to gauge any immediate damage the freeze may have caused.
   “I cut into fruit on Christmas Eve and Christmas day mornings,” Sutton said of the two coldest days during the week, “I didn’t see any ice in the fruit.”
   Additionally, checking areas that historically are the coldest, Sutton said he saw very little leaf burn, a sign that the tree suffered at least some freeze damage.
   “Maybe a little burn on some the young stuff, but not bad.”
   Sutton said the hope now is that warming temperatures don’t become so warm that the trees think it is spring, and start to bloom.
   "It's still early in the winter. The trees will go dormant now, what we don't need is a long period of mid-80-degree weather. If they bloom and then we get another late freeze like last year, it could damage next year's crop."
   Indeed, a late winter freeze this past winter damaged the bloom and cut the size of the citrus crop.
   Elsewhere, there was some loss reported in the local strawberry crop.
   "10-20% of the berries could be lost," said Mike Graham, whose Graham Farms operates a u-pick fruit and vegetable outlet in Altoona. "But that was mostly due to the wind blowing the water away." Graham had run sprinklers at the location to coat the variety of plants currently available, but wind, particularly on Christmas Eve, reduced the effectiveness of the process.
   Unlike in some areas of the country, where the cold weather turned deadly, North Lake County was spared any human loss, with Lake County on Monday reporting no structures had caught fire during the bitter cold. Historically, space heaters and unconventional heating efforts during cold weather have caused property - and sometimes - human loss.
   Lake County opened emergency shelters to assist those who may have lacked appropriate housing for the cold, with LifePointe Church in Eustis and Trinity Assembly of God in Fruitland Park opening their doors through this past Tuesday. Additionally, free transportation to shelters was provided by the county.    Area municipalities reported few issues with the cold, after having winterized pipes and sensitive areas in the days leading up to the freeze.