Maryland’s spring season has been unusually volatile, with dramatic swings from late-winter cold snaps to brief 80-degree surges. For some farmers, including some fruit growers and vintners on the Delmarva Peninsula, the ups and downs have been particularly unwelcome. The governor is even seeking federal disaster aid. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz has this report.
Kevin Diaz:
It's not just you. The weather's been crazy.
WBAL weather report:
We have some cooler weather on the way. We might even turn back to heat with frost in the area Monday night.
Kevin Diaz:
That was the WBAL weather forecast before the night of April 20th when the state experienced a historic and devastating late season freeze. The sudden cold snap followed record breaking high temperatures dropping as low as 25 degrees in parts of central, northern and southern Maryland.
Robert Butz on NBNC4:
It's catastrophic. It was below 30 degrees for more than four hours.
Kevin Diaz:
That was Darnestown Maryland grape grower Robert Butz talking to NBC4 the following week, with similar stories across the state on both sides of the Bay. Maryland. Governor Westmore petitioned the US Department of Agriculture last week for disaster declaration for Maryland farmers. Apple and peach growers were particularly hard hit. So were wineries. The Maryland Wineries Association reported a loss of over 36% of the state's grape acreage leading to an estimated $25 million loss in projected wine sales for the 2026 vintage. The governor's petition followed a plea from the State's Farm Bureau Federation.
Jeb Burchick:
Some of the folks that I've talked to, they've really been hit hard.
Kevin Diaz:
That's Jeb Burchick of the Maryland Farm Bureau.
Burchick:
The reason for that is that we had kind of a uncharacteristically warm early spring throughout March and early April, so that once this late April frost came down, we already had fruit budding and with the frost comes, it basically kills that fruit overnight.
Kevin Diaz:
While the state's big commodity crops like corn and soybeans had yet to be planted, growers of so-called specialty crops were not so lucky.
Burchick:
It was especially damaging to specialty crop producers, which is essentially these perennial plants like your vineyards and orchards. They're the folks that got hit really hard by this. A good way to think of it is like your perennial plants like tree fruits or vineyards, something that you planted years ago and you constantly get fruit from that. So yeah, it's orchards, vineyards, some early spring berries that were planted earlier in the season that kind of came into bud break early. But yeah, for bigger commodity crops as we like to call 'em, like corn and soybeans, for the most part, they weren't planted yet at that point.
Kevin Diaz:
Growers were affected everywhere from Maryland up to Pennsylvania. But it appears that the Eastern Shore and Sussex County were spared the worst of it.
Jennifer Layton:
We were very blessed. We probably maybe had five, maybe 10% damage.
Kevin Diaz:
That was Jennifer Layton of Layton’s Chance, a popular winery near Vienna, Maryland. Compared to other vintners in other parts of the state, she said they dodged a bullet.
Layton:
We're pretty open here, so the wind was better for us and it didn't get quite bad or maybe it wasn't quite as cold for as long.
Kevin Diaz:
Still. She said the effects will be felt.
Layton:
I mean, obviously it doesn't help us maximize what we're doing. But it's not catastrophic for us.
Kevin Diaz:
All this, of course, came amid a period of unusually dry weather, yet another hazard of farm country. But with summer nearly upon us, farmers are hoping for the best.
For Delmarva Public Media, this is Kevin Diaz.
