Northeast farmers warn of pumpkin shortage after Hurricane Irene

NEW YORK (AP) — Northeastern states are facing a jack-o’-lantern shortage this Halloween after Hurricane Irene destroyed hundreds of pumpkin patches across the region, farmers say.

Wholesale prices have doubled in some places as farmers nurse their surviving pumpkin plants toward a late harvest. Some farmers are trying to buy pumpkins from other regions to cover orders.

“I think there’s going to be an extreme shortage of pumpkins this year,” said Darcy Pray, owner of Pray’s Family Farms in Keeseville, in upstate New York. “I’ve tried buying from people down in the Pennsylvania area, I’ve tried locally here and I’ve tried reaching across the border to some farmers over in the Quebec area. There’s just none around.”

Hurricane Irene raked the Northeast in late August, bringing torrents of rain that overflowed rivers and flooded fields along the East Coast and into southern Canada. Pray saw his entire crop, about 15,000 to 20,000 pumpkins, washed into Lake Champlain.

But pumpkin farmers had been having a difficult year even before the storm. Heavy rains this spring meant many farms had to postpone planting for two or three weeks, setting back the fall harvest, said Jim Murray, owner of the Applejacks Orchard in Peru, N.Y.

A late harvest can be fatal to business because pumpkin sales plummet after Halloween on Oct. 31. Wholesalers need to get pumpkins on their way to stores by mid-September.

Another spate of rain about two weeks before Irene caused outbreaks of the phytophthora fungus —a type of water mold — in many fields, said Jim Stakey, owner of Stakey’s Pumpkin Farm in Aquebogue, on New York’s Long Island.

This week a cold snap threatened to kill the surviving vines, Murray said.

“We were real close to a frost last night,” Murray said Saturday. “It was 34, and if we had had a frost, a lot of immature pumpkins would have never made it.”

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Hurricane Maria Speeds Toward Newfoundland With 80 MPH Winds

Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Hurricane Maria sped toward Newfoundland and is expected to cross the Canadian island later today with winds of at least 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center said.

Maria, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, was racing northeast across the Atlantic at 45 mph, the center said in a 5 a.m. Miami time advisory. The storm was about 495 miles southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland, and is forecast to strike Placentia Bay, passing north of St. John’s, a base for offshore oil and gas companies.

On its current track, “the center of Maria should pass near or over extreme southeastern Newfoundland this afternoon,” the center said. “Little change in strength is expected before Maria moves over southeastern Newfoundland.”

Energy companies including Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Hibernia Management & Development Co. have offshore facilities near the storm’s projected path, according to Bloomberg data. Hurricane Igor hit the island last year, killing three people and causing $200 million in damage.

Maria is expected to pass about 170 miles southeast of the Sable Offshore Energy Project’s Thebaud platform, Tanya White, a Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board spokeswoman, said yesterday in an e-mail.

The Sable natural-gas project is owned by a group including Exxon Mobil Canada Properties Ltd., Shell Canada Ltd., Imperial Oil Resources, Pengrowth Energy Corp. and Mosbacher Operating Ltd., according to its website.

Hurricane Warnings

A hurricane warning is in place for the coast of Newfoundland from Arnolds Cove to Brigus South, and a tropical storm warning, indicating winds of at least 39 mph are expected, was set for the area from Stones Cove to Arnolds Cove and from Brigus South to Charlottetown, the center said.

Hurricane-force winds extend 45 miles from Maria’s center. Tropical storm-strength winds reach 205 miles.

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In the wake of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, sediment choked the Hudson River in New York City.

On September 7, The New York Times noted the river’s unusual brown or reddish hue, likely driven by runoff occurring upstate.

The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite captured these natural-color images of the Hudson River and East River around Ellis Island. Both images are rotated and north is at right. The top image shows the area on September 12, 2011. The bottom image shows the same place about a year earlier, on September 2, 2010.

Flooding not only raises river levels, but also increases the amount of sediment they carry. Torrential rain eats away at the ground, washing mud and debris into streams. After it is deposited into a river, sediment may sink to the bottom of the riverbed, or may flow with the water toward the sea. Multiple rivers feed the Hudson, and some of the sediment winding up in the river in early September 2011 included reddish clays from the Catskills region, The New York Times reported.

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2011 Atlantic hurricane season

The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season is an event in the annual cycle of tropical cyclone formation. The season officially started on June 1 and will end on November 30. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin.[1] However, should a tropical or subtropical cyclone form outside these dates during the calendar year 2011, it would count as part of the 2011 season.

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NASA's Aqua Satellite Spots Flooding from Tropical Storm Arlene in Mexico

On June 30, 2011, Tropical Storm Arlene made landfall near Cabo Rojo in Veracruz, Mexico. As the storm came ashore, the U.S. National Weather Service forecast total rainfall accumulations up to 8 inches (20 centimeters), and warned of potentially life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.

The impact of Arlene’s heavy rain was clear in early July as the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead. MODIS captured an image on July 5, 2011 after Arlene had passed through.

The image was created using a combination of visible and infrared light to increase contrast between water and land. In the image, water varies from electric blue to navy. Depending on land cover, areas above water range in color from green to brown. Clouds are pale to medium blue-green.

A network of lakes extends inland from the city of Tampico. In the image from July 5, the lake network appears to have multiplied, with standing water covering large areas northwest and southwest of the city. Standing water is also apparent south of Cabo Rojo.

On July 5, 2011, the Associated Press reported that the Mexican government had raised the official death toll for Arlene to 22. Deaths occurred in multiple states, with the most deaths reported in Hidalgo.

Arlene was the first named Atlantic storm of the season.

Deadly Tropical Cyclones in West Pacific

Saturday, Tropical Depression Meari and the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Haima were located just west of the Korean Peninsula and over northern Laos, respectively.

Meari has continued to weaken as it encountered cooler waters and less favorable wind shear. The storm, however, brought flooding rainfall to northern and eastern parts of the Philippines Thursday and Friday then farther north across Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands Friday night into Saturday. Ambulong, in the northern Philippines, recorded more than 10 inches of rain since Wednesday. Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan recorded more than 4 inches of rain along with wind gusts near 40 mph.

More than 300,000 people have been affected by the recent flooding in the Philippines. At least 15 people have been reported missing since the storm hit the area.

Over 50 flights were canceled out of Manila due to the unsettled weather. Several ports were also closed due to heavy rain, strong winds and high seas associated with the storm.

Heavy rainfall has also drenched the Korean Peninsula over the past several days as the storm approached. Widespread rainfall of 1-3 inches has already occurred, while more than 7 inches has fallen since Friday in Ulsan, South Korea. At least 13 people have been killed or reported missing since the storm hit the area. Locally heavy rainfall will continue in these areas through Monday.

Meanwhile, Haima has become a remnant low pressure after making landfall in Vietnam. Thanh Hoa received more than 10 inches of rain over the past couple of days due to this storm.

Haima also brought heavy rainfall to southern China, including Hainan, over the past couple of days. Tung Fang, in western Hainan, recorded more than 5 inches of rain during this time.

The heavy rainfall across the region has resulted widespread flooding. Reports indicate that at least seven people have been killed in northern Vietnam from this storm and more remain missing. More than 5,000 people have been evacuated from their homes; meanwhile, at least 900 homes have been destroyed.

Heavy rain over the weekend has shifted into northern Laos where widespread 2-5 inch rainfall occurred. Heavy rain soaked Phonhong where more than 8 inches of rain fell in a 24 hour period from Saturday into Sunday. Heavy rain is expected over the next couple days across Indochina as the remnant low weakens.

Hurricane Beatriz weakened into a tropical storm

MANZANILLO, Mexico – Hurricane Beatriz weakened into a tropical storm and headed out to sea Tuesday after pounding Mexico's resort-studded Pacific coast with heavy rains and winds

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Mexico's government had discontinued a hurricane warning for a stretch of coastline from La Fortuna to Cabo Corrientes. Beatriz is expected to continue weakening

Beatriz's maximum sustained winds have dropped to near 60 mph (95 kph). It is about 110 miles (175 kilometers) south-southwest Cabo Corrientes and moving west into the Pacific at near 12 mph (19 kph).

No injuries or major damage were reported in Manzanillo, said David Sanchez, Manzanillo's civil protection director. He said authorities saw two palm trees that had been knocked over.

About 150 Mexican soldiers were deployed on a rescue mission in case homes needed to be evacuated in Acapulco

Authorities say 100 homes were flooded, 20 trees fell and some avenues in the tourist district were also flooded because of the heavy rains. About 30 parked vehicles were swept by the current.