Cool weather stunts the growth of Valley crops

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The cool weather has stunted the growth of many crops and thunderstorms like we saw Sunday can cause severe damage just about any crop.

Many vinyards are also at risk thanks to the moisture, unless farmers act soon.

As dark clouds roll across the Valley sky.

Farmers fear more spring storms could do more damage to this year's crop.

"The cool weather cools everything and just slows everything down," Paul Betancourt said.

Paul bentancourt says there's not much damage from the recent strange weather patterns.

But, he says wind snapped branches on some of his almond trees last week.

And moisture left over from Saturday's rain has the potential to damage these vinyards.

Mild temps and rain have created the perfect environment for mold and mildue to develop.

"It's time for the Valley floor to dry out."

Ryan Jacobson is the executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau.

He told Action News as long as temperatures can move up and out of the 70's crops shouldn't be heavily impacted.

"For us, the sweet spot 90-95 degrees is great, that will do wonders to help those crops catch up to where they should be."

But until the warm up happens and the harvest arrives, farmers just have to adjust to unseasonal weather patterns and wait.

"We won't know until the end of the season what this week's weather does to most crops."

We're expecting a gradual warm up this week which is great for farmers.

If the temperatures jump too fast, that can also damage crops since they need an adjustment period.

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