Kal Spencer

Bad Weather All Over

The wintry cold that iced Florida orange trees is forecast to ease as the week wears on, while the U.S. Midwest should see an end to wind-driven snow that choked shipments of livestock and grain.

“Chills will linger along the Atlantic Coast yet today and Tuesday, but otherwise the big cold snap of 2010 is over,” David Salmon, a forecaster for Weather Derivatives of Belton, Missouri, said in a note to clients.

Cold and snow have played havoc across the Northern Hemisphere for more than a week, snarling travel and commerce in Europe and forcing Chinese authorities to curb power use. Much of the U.K., in the throes of its worst chill since 1981, was warned that more was to come, and German economists predicted reduced economic growth for the first quarter because of the weather.

Orange-juice futures plunged from a two-year high today on signs that weekend freeze damage in Florida may be less than some analysts expected as growers had time to take precautions.

About 5 percent of Florida’s orange crop, the world’s largest after Brazil’s, may have been damaged overnight, said Dale Mohler, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc.

Futures for March delivery slipped 18.35 cents, or 12 percent, to $1.328 a pound at 11:50 a.m. on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange in New York, after earlier dropping by as much as the exchange’s 20-cent limit.

Mixed Blessing

Joel Widenor, the director of agricultural services at Commodity Weather Group, said high temperatures in most of the citrus belt may be well into the 70s by late this week, and that may add to crop damage assessments.

“Citrus doesn’t respond well if you have a quick turnaround in temperature,” Widenor said. “It can accelerate the rot if they don’t get out there and get what has been damaged harvested fast enough.”

Hog futures fell today for the first time in three sessions on speculation that deliveries to meatpackers will increase. Shipments were delayed in the Midwest last week by snow-covered farm roads and risk of frostbite.

“We’re looking for vastly improved weather for the next two weeks,” said Dennis Smith, a senior account executive at Archer Financial Services Inc. in Chicago. “There’s going to be a lot of hogs available to the packer.”

Hog futures for February settlement fell 0.575 cent, or 0.9 percent, to 66.675 cents a pound at 9:51 a.m. on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Power-Plant Output

U.S. power-plant output rose 9 percent in the week ended Jan. 7, according to an analysis by Genscape Inc. Power output at plants monitored by Genscape accounts for about 46 percent of all electricity generation in the nation.

Heating demand over the next few weeks will be below-normal nationwide, said Matt Rogers, a forecaster at Commodity Weather Group.

“The warm-up will last at least two weeks at this time,” he said in a telephone interview from Bethesda, Maryland. “We may tip-toe into a colder pattern late in January and then it gets more impressive in February.”

Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America, the largest transporter of the fuel into Chicago, said shipments are curtailed in Texas because of cold weather.

Also in Texas, the Exxon Mobil Corp. refinery in Baytown, the largest in the U.S., suffered a weather-related upset in a lubes unit, Kevin Allexon, a company spokesman, said today. He said customer needs were being met.

Mississippi Cold

Ergon Inc. reported “a release of sulfur dioxide from a flare due to multiple units shutting down from the cold weather” at its Vicksburg, Mississippi, refinery over the weekend, Greg Flynn, a spokesman with the Mississippi Emergency Management agency, said in an e-mail.

A high pressure area that had formed above the Arctic Circle and was responsible for pushing frigid weather across much of the Northern Hemisphere, is “weakening quite a bit,” Rogers said.

“Europe will get a bit of a respite, but their forecast is for normal to below-normal temperatures over the next couple of weeks,” he said. “They’re not warming up as much as we are in the U.S.”

Airlines in the U.K., France and Germany, including British Airways PLC, reported scattered delays and cancellations. Eurostar Group Ltd. operated a reduced service as wintry weather in Europe snarled transportation.

Forecast for Snow

The U.K.’s central weather office today warned Wales and much of central, western and southern England to expect widespread icy roads while “heavy snow” was predicted for the Yorkshire and Humber region. Weather-related accidents have already left at least 26 dead in Britain, including a 90-year- old woman who fell and froze to death in her garden, the Press Association news agency said.

Germany’s first-quarter economic growth might be reduced as the weekend winter storm and the continued cold hobbled construction and shipping, said Volker Treier, chief economist at the DIHK chambers of trade and commerce.

If the cold snap persists through January, the DIHK’s forecast for as much as 0.7 percent growth in the first three months could be cut, he told Bloomberg Television in Berlin.

Snow and floods are easing in Germany after bringing northern parts of the nation to a standstill yesterday, leaving cars and trains stranded and cutting off coastal villages.

French Power Use

French electrical demand may rise to a record today as power prices jumped to the highest in a year, grid operator Reseau de Transport d’Electricite said on its Web site.

Freezing temperatures in China have led to the worst sea ice off Shandong province’s coast in three decades, the Xinhua news agency reported. Some 200 fishing boats were frozen at a port in Dongying by ice as thick as 30 centimeters (12 inches).

Blizzards in China’s westernmost province of Xinjiang, killed one and forced authorities to evacuate 5,000 residents, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said. More snow is forecast for Xinjiang today and tomorrow, the China Meteorological Administration said.

Freezing weather in China is also forcing cities including Beijing and Shanghai to ration the use of natural gas and electricity to ensure sufficient energy for heating as temperatures fall.

Entry Filed under: Climate Change,Weather. Tags: Climate Change, global warming, Weather.