On April 22 and 23, a cold air mass from the Arctic moved across Michigan and the rest of eastern North America and created havoc for fruit growers with colder than normal temperatures. Widespread frosts resulted in significant losses to fruit crops in Southwest Michigan and to tart cherries in Northwest Michigan. The weeks following the frost were generally cool, wet and windy -- very poor pollination weather. This period of cold weather ended in mid-May with another series of frosts and freezes from May 17 to May 21 that severely impacted all the fruit growing regions of Michigan.

By early June, the impact of the multiple severe spring frosts and poor pollination was apparent. Tart cherries and plums suffered 90% damage statewide. Juice grapes, peaches, pears and apples were severely affected with only 50% of a crop statewide, and many growers and regions suffering near total losses. Blueberries and wine grapes suffered less than 50% losses, but many growers still lost most of their crop.

At a MSU Fruit Area of Expertise meeting on April 26, it was decided to focus on helping growers cope with the loss of income in 2002 and their need to maintain the health of their plants, protecting them from insect and disease damage and maintain the potential for good 2003 crops. Another focus would be building awareness in the public and state and federal government of the scope of the disaster in hopes of gaining an agricultural disaster declaration and funding to help growers weather the disastrous 2002 crop year.

A concerned effort was made to get information out to growers quickly. Two special Frost issues of the Fruit CAT Alert Newsletter were published on April 30 and May 8.