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Winter Rain Is Helping San Diego Farmers

San Diego County has the most farms compared to any other county in the United States. Local farms tend to range from one to 300 acres.
Gabriel Salcedo
San Diego County has the most farms compared to any other county in the United States. Local farms tend to range from one to 300 acres.

One day it’s raining, the next day it’s windy and cold. Hail even pelted the field at the last Chargers game of the season.

Winter Rain Is Helping San Diego Farmers
The winter weather hasn’t hurt local crops. In fact, farmers are likely happy with the conditions.

But while San Diegans may find this weather pattern odd, Eric Larson, executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, said we’re actually right on track for a typical winters. And he said the regular rainstorms we’ve been getting have been great for local farmers.

"The growers of the permanent crops, mostly the orange and avocado growers, it really helps them avoid irrigating with very, very expensive water," he said. "So it’s really important to their bottom line to get some good rain. So this has been great so far."

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Larson said the frost may provide some problems for growers of ornamental plants. But he said the forecast he looks at doesn’t predict any hard freezes that would do a lot of damage to trees and crops.

In fact, he said this winter may even be a bit warmer than usual.