Valley crops impacted by latest round of storms

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The sun has returned but the damage has already been done.

Large almonds were knocked off trees in orchards at the Fresno State farm.

"We had winds upwards of 20 MPH winds, that comes through and just hammers one side to another," says Fresno State Farm Manager Rob Willmott.

As a result, almonds were knocked to the ground.

Willmott knew the weekend storm would bring damage.

"When I showed up this (Monday) morning and started driving around, I started seeing some of the larger nuts had fallen off," he said. "The almond tree already has a natural shedding process, where it will drop a certain amount of fruit that didn't set."

Willmott noticed almonds the size of his thumb were blown off his trees, which are forming this year's crop.

This was the scene in one of the farm's wheat fields. Areas started to lay down.

"The damage that you see here are combination of rain and wind," Willmott said. "So rain, the plant got heavier weight on it. That wind came through, it started leaning and started leaning and then it gave way."

Willmott though hopes warmer weather will cause wheat plants to stand back up, but adds, often that is not the case.

It is too early to put any damage estimates on the Valley crop.

The wheat field is expected to be harvested on Wednesday.

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