Live Blogging the South Florida Freeze 2010

By Jacob Katel Thu., Jan. 7 2010 at 1:15 AM

Categories: News

Image via Florida Automated Weather Network

Click for full-size.

Agriculture is big business, but at the end of the day Mother Nature still makes the rules.

The Florida Freeze of January 2010 threatens our $100 billion fruit and vegetable industry and may drive up prices down the road.

Earlier today we spent some time in the fields of South Dade looking for signs of damage, and life, shot a few pictures, and now we're back at HQ following the freeze virtually.

Farmers and nursery owners will work an extra 50 to 100 hours this week in battling the temps.

It's late, here goes:

Jacob Katel

South Dade farm leaf January 6, 2010, 3:07 p.m., a cold day.

That's a lot of green.

5:50 p.m.: One of many defrost water puddles at area farms and plant nurseries.

2:26 a.m. - Holy shit. Just called the Florida Automated Weather Hotline 866-754-5732, right now in Homestead the air temp is 42, dew point is 37 degrees, relative humidity is 81 percent, and winds are out of the north at 6 mph.

And, it's 24 degrees in Okahumpka.

2:30 a.m. - Spain sold Florida to the U.S. for $5 million around the year 1819.

2:37 a.m. - AP freeze video. Blankets and high pressure hoses. Strawberry prices may spike if freeze weather continues.

2:50 a.m. - Weatherzine blog Florida freeze pictures. Cool.

2:56 a.m. - WeatherUnderground says the Homestead record low is 34 degrees, set in 1931. Last night it hit 36.3.

3:05 a.m. - "There are tools that can help you decide when to start the pumps running if you are freeze protecting and how low temperatures are expected to go." [HortAgent]

3:09 a.m. - Weatherbug camera timelapse from Homestead high school doesn't look cold. [Hit Rerun]

3:29 a.m. - The channel 10 live weather cam hasn't updated since November, 2008:

http://www.justnews.com/wxcam/1808099/detail.html

3:41 a.m. - Channel 10 reporter goes to Broward golf course at 3 a.m. to watch kamikaze iguanas fall off tree branches from cold. [JustNews]

3:47 a.m. -