March 17, 2017

Monday marks the first day of spring, but we are expecting very unsettled weather conditions throughout the week in all California strawberry growing regions. The current report calls for rain to settle in by late Monday or early Tuesday and is expected to hit the entire coast by Tuesday afternoon. Totals are forecasted to likely be ½ to 1 inch. Post-frontal spotty light showers linger Wednesday and Thursday, followed by a stronger system hitting on Saturday and Sunday, March 25 & 26. Potential is there for this to be a significant rainmaker. Model runs are trending wetter each day for this system and 2 inches may be feasible, heaviest towards the Santa Barbara County and Santa Barbara Coast. Lower confidence past weekend of March 25-26, but the overall pattern may go drier.

We are doing our best to harvest in advance of the rain over the weekend and will keep our fields clean so we can quickly get back into production after this dual front passes through. You may see some lighter colored fruit due to the advance picking, but that should pass quickly. Our field operations team is assessing anticipated volume once this latest set of storms passes and they anticipate volume to ramp up as we approach the Easter holiday. However, the week of Easter will most likely be when we see the best increases moving forward into spring.

Be sure to keep in close contact with our sales team over the next ten days as we work through this ‘hopefully’ last storm of spring and as the forecast continues to shift!