Citrus Industry Bounces Back

WGCU senior environmental reporter Tom Bayless is here to update us on some important environmental stories in Southwest Florida. Thanks for joining us in studio today. Hi, Jennifer. Now, there may be a very bright spot in the citrus industry in Southwest Florida. That's right. You know, the numbers just came in for the most recent growing season. And the news. While there may be caveats, contains a pleasant surprise. You know, orange is built Florida long before there was a Mickey mouse. The orange blossom remains the state flower, the orange, the state fruit and orange juice. The state beverage. Groves paid for courthouses in college and tuitions. And the money ran through families for 3 or 4 generations. But the groves that once defined the state have been disappearing for decades. Some were bulldozed for subdivisions and shopping centers as the land became more valuable than the fruit growing on it. Other families sold when younger generations chose not to continue farming, and freezes and citrus killing pests and diseases like citrus greening came along. That's caused by a psyllid so small it can hardly be seen with the naked eye. The savviest buyers turned to Brazil, where freezes were not a threat, and soon Brazil to throne Florida to become the world's largest orange juice producer. And Florida, once the world's top exporter of concentrate, began buying it. That makes what happened during the latest growing season not much more remarkable. Florida produced nearly 16 million boxes of citrus, up 7%. The problem is the rebound comes after a really bad season. Growers produce nearly a third fewer boxes in the 2425 season, which was down 28%. But Southwest Florida's growers beat the averages. Five counties are responsible for the 73% of this year's crop growers, and Highlands, De Soto and Hardy counties are among those and produced 6 million boxes. Those are great numbers. Will Florida citrus farmers be able to rebound? Jennifer. That's the future. That's hard to predict. But Brazil is having a tough time. Since citrus greening showed up there, nearly 50% of the orange trees in their in their San Paolo citrus belt are infected with greening. And I was in Brazil, in that very region a little over a decade ago, reporting on their dominance in citrus over the U.S., and it wasn't a problem then. I never want to wish bad mojo on anyone else, but you can see how fast something like greening can affect a citrus powerhouse. And if they're faltering, someone, somewhere is going to pick up that slack. And I don't think growers in southwest Florida would mind if that were them. Well, Tom, let's talk about hurricane season. September 10th, 2017. Hurricane Irma made landfall in southwest Florida on Marco Island. It was a devastating storm across the state of Florida. We, however, have been lucky so far in 2026 and it has been calm and we we want it to stay that way. Certainly has. This year's hurricane season is about to set a new record for doing nothing. Five tropical storms have formed since June, and not one of them has reached hurricane strength. And that is not forecast to happen before or during Friday, which is September 11th, the latest in recent history. And Atlantic Hurricane has first formed Gustav in 2002 and Umberto in 2013. Share that date. The National Hurricane Center sees no tropical development in the Atlantic over the next seven days, and Meghan Borowski of the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network agrees. It's not entirely surprising, right, because we have El Nino, which developed, and it's the strongest new on record. And what that phenomenon does is it increases vertical wind shear in the tropical Atlantic. And the more wind shear we have, the less likely we are to have tropical cyclones, because it tends to scramble up the thunderstorm activity that we need for for tropical storms to to actually develop an organize. So we might get through September or October, November and be okay in terms of hurricanes or tropical storms. But El Nino can actually increase the chance that we'll have strong cold fronts move through the state. And we could have squall line thunderstorms that could increase our chance for damaging winds and for tornadoes. So we're not in the clear once hurricane season concludes. The El Nino, which typically causes a wetter winter over Florida, is expected to build into the strongest one ever, but perhaps not until the start of 2027. That would leave wind shear in place to continue to lessen the chances of a hurricane, but it does not guarantee one or more hurricanes will not form during the three months left in the season. It's been since 1914 that no hurricane formed in the Atlantic during hurricane season. The closest Florida has been to no hurricanes in recent years was in 1983, when there were four hurricanes. But just one of them were was Major Hurricane Alicia, which hit Galveston and Houston in August and caused more than $2 billion in damage. The National Hurricane Center sees no tropical development in the Atlantic over the next seven days, which would push this season past that mark and into the record books. And forecasters at Noah are sticking with their call for a below normal season. But the calendar still has three months left on it before the Atlantic season is over. Late year hurricanes often start in the Gulf and head this way, so it's too early to say, but I do like that we are going to be setting a record that's a great record to actually break. I don't think there's going to be a storm forming in the next 24 or so hours. Fingers crossed. Thank you Tom.