Good Story on Florida Freeze in December 1894

[jdray]

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/s ... 0801.shtml

Nice little article I stumbled across.

The St. Johns River in a small cove in front of the Westcotts' home froze solid and they hosted an ice skating party. One wonders why all those transplanted Northerners hauled ice skates to Florida but evidently they did and a good time was had by all, but "they considered it an expensive luxury" considering the accompanying damages.

This was the same freeze that killed pretty much all of Florida's citrus growth.
Hence the reason the Town of Orange Park, Florida no longer has a single Orange Tree Grove in it.....

[richtrav]

Actually it was the 2nd freeze of the winter in February that wiped the citrus; the December freeze just froze back some of the leaves and branches and the trees were actively regrowing from their damage when the February freeze hit. They didn't have a chance. An even more severe freeze came along in Feb 1899 but not many growers noticed - you can't kill something that's already dead. Like the 1980s, it did cause many people in Florida to question whether their climate had permanently changed.

[AggieSpirit]

Wasn't the South Texas citrus industry ruined by the 1983 winter?

[richtrav]

The worst citrus freeze in the history of Texas came in 1951, and had some similarities to the 1895 freeze in Florida. There was a lighter freeze in December 1950 that knocked the leaves off the trees, they responded by flushing with new growth during a very warm January and were sitting ducks when the Big One came down at the end of January. Losses were very high. The 1983 freeze did kill citrus but it was not as bad as '51. The 1983 freeze is more famous for its destruction of all the old tall Mexican fan palms lining the roads of far South Texas. Most had been planted in the 1920s-30s