Earth Changes
"Peaches are a signature South Carolina crop, and this weather anomaly has devastated peach farmers," said Hugh Weathers, South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture.
South Carolina is the largest peach producing state on the East Coast. The state is second only to California nationally.
Weathers said 85 to 90% of the peach crop was lost last week during the extreme cold weather, and the impact will be felt in lots of areas across the nation.
He said, "The South Carolina peach has a great reputation moving up the East Coast, losing the South Carolina peach this summer will bring some tears to New York City."

As the permafrost continues to melt it gives a Swiss cheese-like appearance to the landscape in the Arctic.
Last year, more than 15 bulges or bulgunyakh in the local Yakut language, were discovered by researchers in Siberia's remote Bely Island. In a followup research, using extensive field expeditions and satellite surveys. thousands of bulging bumps in the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas have been identified.
Hail up to the size of golf balls was reported near UNC-Charlotte. However, the hail was even larger in South Carolina. Locations near Greenville, South Carolina reported baseball sized hail that shattered car windows in some neighborhoods.
@NWSGSP Brother sent me this picture of hail from Travelers Rest around 6pm. More hail on Wade Hampton moments ago #scwx #severewx #hail pic.twitter.com/U6ml8uqk7z
— Melissa Griffin (@mlgriffinWX1) March 21, 2017
Mr. Herrera and his 5-year-old Pomeranian were walking in the 2600 block of Lincoln Park Blvd. near his home on February 2, when two male Pit Bulls which had escaped from a nearby yard grabbed the tiny dog, "shredding his body like a piece of material," according to a neighbor. An eyewitness said that the owner of the Pit Bulls saw the dogs attacking but took no action to stop them.
When he tried to save his best friend, Mr. Herrera was also attacked, suffering severe injuries to his head and arms.
He underwent surgery but remained in a coma and never regained consciousness. According to a statement by a family member on their GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses, "...after about 3 weeks of being in the hospital the doctors have told us that his brain is no longer functioning. The family and I have decided to let him go and rest, because we know he has been through so much."
Mr. Herrera died on February 28, just before a scheduled hearing on the attack by the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services on March 1.
This video shows the waterspouts from a distance. The uploader told Storyful that the waterspouts "only lasted for a couple of minutes."
Source: Storyful News
The rusty patched bumble bee on Tuesday became the first bee in the continental US to be placed on the endangered species list by the Department of the Interior. The bee's status was the result of a bureaucratic tug-of-war between the transfer of power from Barack Obama to President Trump.
The bee was initially proposed for the list in September 2016 after it was determined that in the past 20 years, the rusty patched bumble bee's population has decreased over 90 percent due to disease, pesticide, climate change and habitat loss, Reuters reported.

A dead whale washed ashore near Port aux Basques on Friday and was carried out to sea by winds and tide later in the evening.
The bloated carcass was carried out to sea by winds and tide until it disappeared from view sometime later that evening, according to local coast guard reports.
The species of whale is uncertain. It was estimated to be about 50-feet long.
The local agricultural commission said yesterday that the cause of death was still under investigation and dissection would take place.
The male baleen whale, some 22 meters in length, was missing its left fin and had been dead for more than 10 days, experts with Shanghai Ocean University and Shanghai Science and Technology Museum said after a preliminary study yesterday.
The body was highly decayed, they said. The remains were taken to a port in Pudong's Nanhui area on Monday.
"We first noticed the whale on Sunday afternoon," Lu Haibing, 59, captain of the boat that spotted the whale, told Shanghai Daily. "At first we thought it was an overthrown yacht and then realized it was body of a big creature."
The United States Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.5 earthquake that struck at 7:10 a.m. Wednesday was centred two kilometres northeast of Banjar Pasekan, a town in the southeastern part of Bali, at a depth of 118 kilometres.
Witnesses said many residents and tourists ran out of their homes and hotels toward higher ground, but the situation returned to normal after they received text messages saying the quake had no potential to trigger a tsunami.
The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency measured the earthquake at 6.4 magnitude but said it would not cause a tsunami because the epicenter was so deep.
Indonesia is prone to the seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire. In December 2004, a massive earthquake off Sumatra island triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.
The floods have claimed at least 78 lives and a state of emergency has been declared covering half of the country.
It is a result of record downpours which caused rivers to overflow, triggered landslides and left thousands homeless.
Climate experts say it is due to the 'coastal El Nino' phenomenon, with exceptionally warm water in the Pacific causing the torrential rains.
On Peru's northern coast, small villages have been totally cut off.
"Recently, I went to see my house which is bad, bad, bad. I lost all my things. I lost practically everything and that is why I was obliged to come here," said one woman displaced by the floods.













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SOTT Exclusive: The growing threat of underground fires and explosions