Crops in the world's largest lemon-growing province suffered serious damages from more than 10 hours of frost over the weekend, website Lagaceta.com.ar reported.

The Argentine National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INIA) Meterological Observatory, reported weather box temperatures of -3.5ºC (26ºF) in Tucumán province's central zone on Saturday morning, while outside a minimum of -8.8ºC (16ºF) was reached, the story reported.

The phenomenon lasted for nine hours on Saturday night, one hour on Sunday, while a low of -2.4ºC (28ºF) was registered yesterday.

Observatory technician Juan Rubén Pedraza, told the website frost damage to crops was accumulative, so longer exposure meant the damage would be much worse.

"We must await the outcome of the evaluations, but the experience we have with these types of phenomena is to expect grave damage. To the east of the province the impact will be even worse than in the central zone," Pedraza was quoted as saying.

He highlighted last year the frosts caused serious crop damages, to the extent that the production of around 300,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar was lost, the story reported.

"We have to monitor what happened with the cane, because surely there will be damage in the guide bud, and also in the lemons," he was quoted as saying.

The region also suffered a blizzard in late-June with conditions not seen since 1920.

For a breakdown of temperatures throughout the province in recent days, click here

Related story: Polar cold wave hits South America

Photo: La Gaceta

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