Raisin growers welcome cooldown

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- A break from the heatwave was welcomed by Valley raisin growers. They're in the middle of the drying season but even they say the temperatures have been a little too hot.

The hot sun will turn Thompson seedless grapes into sweet raisins in this vineyard near Selma but it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Raisin growers like Steve Spate called the mid-90s ideal. The intense heat they can do without.

Spate explained, "You get to 106 it's hard on workers. It's hard on the grape. It dries too fast. You can't keep up with it at rolling time."

Spate showed us grapes laid out to dry five days ago. You could still see they're green underneath.

Industry estimates project a smaller crop this year - down 20 percent because of the drought and the lack of winter rain.

Spate said, "We've seen everything from 10 percent short of last year's crop to as much as 50 percent from last year's crop."

Growers worry about further impacts to their irrigation wells after Gov. Jerry Brown signed groundwater monitoring legislation on Tuesday.

The governor said, "We have to learn to manage wisely our water, energy and land."

The raisins are in various stages of development. Some are drying. Some have already been rolled up and some of the rolled trays were picked up and ready to be delivered to the packing house.