The return of winter. After tasting summer temperatures, France will experience a cold spell at the end of the week with a drastic drop in mercury, raising fears of major damage to crops.
Last year, a similar episode devastated the vineyards and several arboriculture regions, resulting in a total of nearly 2 billion in lost sales.
This unprecedented frost had completely destroyed certain crops and marked people’s minds. Also, this year, a certain feverishness reigns in the fields.
For the time being Météo France wants to be cautious and reassuring: “we can hope to have less damage than last year”, declared Mathieu Regimbeau, agrometeorologist at Météo-France. According to him, the cold will be “less brutal and more moderate”, especially since “all the vegetation has not started its budburst”.
Too high temperatures
Because that is where the crux of the problem lies. Frost in early April is not unusual, but exceptionally mild temperatures are. They will have the effect of accelerating the process of plant maturation and causing budburst, that is to say the period of opening of the buds. However, it is precisely from the end of vegetative rest that frost becomes a threat to crops: it destroys the first shoots.
The tone is more measured on the side of ITK (Intelligence Technology Knowledge). This company based in Hérault specializes in connected services for agriculture and in particular weather forecasts.
For Serge Zaka, agroclimatologist, “all the models do not agree on the minimum temperature values” expected following this violent descent of cold air. The presence of snow on the ground is rather good news for field crops, which will find themselves protected by this layer. On the other hand, arboriculture is much more vulnerable.
Apricot and plum trees under threat
Clearly, the pessimistic scenario foresees great damage for apricot trees, plum trees, pear trees and cherry trees. Losses could be between 90% and 100% in central France. But cloud cover could be enough to avoid these catastrophic predictions.
There remains another unknown to refine the predictions of potential damage. The duration of the event is difficult to determine according to meteorologists. But we can already expect a cold spell at least until April 4th. We will know more about the sequel in the coming days.
In the vineyards, last year’s frost is still on everyone’s mind. Without waiting for more details from Météo France, many winegrowers in Burgundy have already installed devices that are supposed to fight against frost: candles the size of a bucket that bring a little heat to the vines for a few hours.
According to scientists, these exceptional situations will be repeated more and more often, as a consequence of global warming.