Evans Orchard fares well after cold night

Many farmers have spent the past few days preparing for the expected record cold night.

"We used our plastic to cover the strawberries and we've got a big orchard heater, and we ran it from about 3:30 to about 7:30 this morning," Kevan Evans, owner of Evans Orchard, said.

Evans Orchard made all the right plans to protect their crops from the record cold night. Despite being cold, the weather cooperated fairly well.

"It was really a great night because it didn't get near as cold as we thought it was going to get," Evans said. "At 3 o'clock we were still 30 degrees. And then it dropped to 29. It dropped to 28 for maybe an hour and then came right back up."

Calm winds as well allowed enough heat to stay at the surface.

"We had a good heat inversion and everything worked well, so it was kind of the perfect scenario if we had to do it," Evans said.

Those ingredients combined allowed for Evans to save much of their crops from what could have been a devastating freeze.

"We may have lost another 5 or 10 percent of apples but I don't believe we even lost that because it wasn't that cold," Evans said. "It stayed warm up until right before daylight. So I feel really optimistic that what we have here is still here."

The strawberry cropped faired well under the tarps, too.