A number of weather systems have impacted the southeastern United States during the past two months. The mid-March through mid-April period was particularly active. The impacts were rather divided, however. Copious rains fell over the mainland areas of the Southeast, while the eastern Gulf of Mexico / FL peninsula region remained quite dry. Unsettled weather has only returned to the FL / eastern Gulf region just this past week.
There were a number of transport events from western Cuba that could have impacted the northern FL / southern GA growing areas. These occurred on March 26-28, March 31-April 1, April 4, April 9, and April 12-13. The weather was similar for most events. Conditions were generally unfavorable for survivable transport; they became more favorable for deposition and infection as the events coincided with unsettled weather in the northern FL / southern GA region. Most risk predictions were in the Low category. One episode had risk in the Weakly Moderate category, and one was in the Moderate range. As no disease reports have been received, apparently none of these events produced an outbreak in the U.S. growing areas.
Growers in the United States are encouraged to continue monitoring their plants for signs of disease.