Tropical Storm Rosa brought heavy rains to northwestern Mexico as it hit Baja California and Sonora state late on Monday, bringing 3 to 6 inches of rain to the area. From there, it moved northwest to southern Arizona and is expected to drench the desert areas of the southwestern US. According to forecasters, the rain may cause "life-threatening flash flooding."
The highest rainfall amounts will fall just north of the center of circulation, which looks to track roughly from Yuma to Flagstaff through Tuesday afternoon.
Dates have been harvested
“The larger concentration of rain from the storm is hitting the Bard Valley and Yuma, AZ growing regions,” says Ben Antongiovanni with Pure Palm Produce. “Dates have been harvested for about five weeks, so most of the fruit is already picked and the rains should have minimal impact on the dates in our region,” he said.
Yuma, Ariz., picked up 0.65 inches of rain Sunday alone as moisture was drawn inland ahead of the storm. This area averages 3.78 inches of rainfall per year, which means it received the equivalent of 62 days’ worth of rain in about 24 hours.
Leafy greens planting season about to start
Duncan Family Farms from Buckeye, AZ is literally just beginning its leafy greens planting season and doesn’t have product in the ground with the exception of culinary herbs. “Our main point of mitigation at this point is digging tunnels for water diversion and run off to help drain the fields,” says Patty Emmert with Duncan Family Farms. “In addition, we planted ahead last week in anticipation of losing a few days this week. If we were further into the season and had product in the ground, we would probably look at laying down row covers to help protecting the plant from heavy 'beating' rainfall," she mentioned.
Ely Trujillo with Las Vegas-based Superior Growers mentioned he will have more information later today as the storm passes through the Baja California area. “Yesterday, prices were already affected and trending up,” he said. “On hot peppers, prices jumped about 5 percent on Monday.”