Overnight temps may have spared orchards in Monroe, Wayne County | Environment

Overnight temperatures may have spared orchards in Monroe and Wayne Counties closest to Lake Ontario from a hard freeze that was forecast.

Grower Gary Herman says his thermometer recorded a low of 26 degrees in his apple-peach-apricot orchard on Lake Road in Webster. Similar readings were found in Williamson.

But orchards in Orleans County may not have fared as well. Weather stations there recorded a low of 19 degrees in Orleans County.

Herman says it usually takes a couple of days before any damage shows up in the green flower buds, which would turn brown or black if damaged. He says he's fairly confident the apple buds were not harmed. And he's hopeful about his peach trees.

Without flowers, a tree cannot bear any fruit.

Apples are a major crop in the state. New York is second only to Washington state in the production of apples.