The Savannah morning news., 1903-02-17
COLD WAVES SWEEP
FREEZING WEATHER OVER THE
ENTIRE SOUTH.
FRUIT ORCHARDS IN DANGER.
AND ALL TENDER VEGETATION
LIKELY TO SUFFER-.

Severest weather of the Winter
Predicted on the COast-Mercury
May Fall to 20 Degrees or Lower.
Peach Trees Now in Bloom and
Leaf in Great Danger, Though
Truck Crops, Except English Peas
and Irish Potatoes, Thought Safe.
Expert Opinions on the Impend-
ing Dnnger-FIOrida Orange Grow
ers Greatly Alarmed and Hauling
Wood TO Their Groves to Build
Fires and Keep ont the Cold.
If predictions prove correct this sec
ton and the entire South, extending
into the orange belt of Florida, will be
visited by a disastrous freeze tonight
and tomorrow.
The freeze is following the storm Of
last night, and according to Local
Forecaster Boyer the coolest weather
of the winter is expected. 1t is i'm
freezing will prevail, but estimating
the conditions elsewhere throughout
the country, 20 or more degrees above
zero, will, in all probability prevail to-
morrow, and as low as % degrees will
be felt in Florida. With these con-
ditions the lowest temperature of the
winter, "a degrees on Dec. q, will have
been eclipsed. The change will be felt
this morning but not before noon will
the cold begin to gain energy
Vegetation VIII suffer.
Mr.. NJ. L. Exley, one of the best in
formed truck farmers in this section,
said last night that the fruit trees will
suffer badly. Peach trees in many sec
tions are budded and some are in bios
som. Cabbage, turnips, lettuce, beets,
etc, will be able to stand considerable
cold, as they are all well up and being
hardy vegetables, will stand consider
able cold. English peas, which are
now in the ground and sprouted. will
suffer No other produce is now in the
ground, except Irish potatoes, but as
they have not sprouted above the sur
face will not be effected. unless the
ground freezes to a considerable depth.
Forecaster Boyer said that the warm
weather of the last few weeks has
brought the sap to the bodies of peach
trees and has caused bloom and leaves
to appear all of which will be killed
or set back.
In the Fruit Section.
President John NJ. Egan of the Cen
trail of Georgia and Vice President and
Traffic Manager w. A. Winburn,
who take deep interest in
all that pertains to the peach crop,
have grave fears that it will suffer
as severe as was predicted. The orch
ards are not fully in bloom. they said,
but the buds have begun to swell and
the damage will be heavy.
There has been a decided increase
in the number of peach trees set out
in the peach belt of Georgia during
the last season, but as these young
trees are not yet mature enough to
bear, the loss, whatever there is of it,
will fall on the old orchards. With
the exception of the peach crop there
is little else that can be damaged.
Private information received at the
Weather Bureau stated that the or
ange growers of Florida, who always
fear the last two weeks of February,
were greatly alarmed over the impend-
ing danger and every grower had at
work a little army of men hauling
woods to the windward of the groves,
so as to build fires that the smoke and
heat may be carried in among the trees
and possibly be the means of saving
them from a repetition of the disaster
in 1894, when rich men were made poor
by one nights cold.
Prediction for To-day.
The following is the local forecast
for to-day, furnished by the Weather
Bureau, for this city and section:
Rain tonight and becoming colder;
Tuesday fair and decidedly colder
with a cold wave. High southerly
winds shifting to northwest"
The Washington forecast, received
at IL o'clock is as follows: Fair and
much colder Tuesday with cold wave.
Freezing temperature to the coast
Tuesday night High north winds
Wednesday; fair and continued cold"
The report of weather conditions ex-
listing throughout the country yester-
day was as follows:
A trough OF very low pressure, eX-
tending southwest from the North At
lantlc states to the Central Gulf coast,
contains two well defined storm CEN
ters; one over the Chesapeake and the
other in Southern Mississippi To the
southeast of the axis of this trough of
low pressure unseasonably high tenn
peratures prevail, but to the northwest
of the axis sever cold wave conditions
now obtain, Bismarck, N. D., reporting
a temperature of "a degrees below re
no. with the zero line running south
west from near Chicago through the
Texas panhandle, and the freezing line
running southwest from central Penn
sylvania and cutting northwestern
mississippi. Precipitation has been
general in the Southwest and all the
country between the Mississippi and
the Atlantic except the south Atlantic
coast districts"