This report covers conditions and observations made on Tuesday, February 17, 2015.

Today’s photos for the southern region present a close-up of the developing bloom of the Nonpareil, followed by a down-the-row shot of the Butte and Padre, both in the Chowchilla of Madera County. Our final image shows the petal fall stage of the Fritz in the Delano area of Kern County.

The southern San Joaquin Valley is getting a big push from Mother Nature. Patchy fog burned off by 9 am giving way to mostly clear skies and temperatures in the mid 70’s with light breezes. Temperatures rose rapidly from lows in the mid 40’s and orchards were humming with bee activity early. With bloom at or near its peak in many orchards, observers reported that bees put in 8 very good hours of activity.

The bloom in the southern region has advanced strongly over the past few days. Early blooming Sonora, along with Nonpareil, the California types, Carmel and Monterey are all, on average, presenting the vast majority of their flowers for pollination. This has produced excellent overlap between varieties in any given orchard. The late blooming Butte is also on the move and is being following closely by the Padre, with adequate degrees of overlap visible.

Though we are in the midst of a rapid bloom, the daily progression is not unprecedented. The excellent conditions that have conspired to push bud development ahead have also provided good opportunities for the bees to do their work in the orchards.