Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Florida citrus growers braced for more nights of freezing temperatures as snow blanketed southern England, closing airports and roads, and Beijing suffered the coldest weather in almost four decades.

Frigid air sweeping across the Northern Hemisphere sent orange-juice futures up as much as 4.3 percent to a two-year high in intraday trading on fears Florida’s citrus crop may be reduced. Natural gas jumped to a 13-month high amid forecasts for temperatures as much as 25 degrees below average.

“The cold weather is hitting a lot of the more-populated areas, such as western and northern Europe, a lot of the eastern U.S.,” Bob Tarr, a meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc., said today in a telephone interview. “It’s a rare pattern, and unusual to see this cold weather affecting a number of major population centers and persisting for about three weeks.”

At least seven deaths in the U.S. have been blamed on icy roads or cold-related accidents, the Associated Press reported.

In the U.K., which is enduring the longest cold snap since 1981, the British army was called out to help rescue motorists from as many as 1,000 vehicles on the snow-covered A3. Eurostar canceled four trains between London, Paris and Brussels, a spokesman, Richard Holligan, said today.

Temperature Forecast

Temperatures in New York City are forecast to be as much as 13 degrees below average by Jan. 10, according to MDA Federal Inc.’s EarthSat Energy Weather of Rockville, Maryland. The U.S. Northeast is responsible for about four-fifths of the country’s heating oil use.

Temperatures will be 25 degrees below average in Houston and St. Louis on Jan. 9, EarthSat said. About 72 percent of households in the Midwest use natural gas for heat.

Florida’s two largest citrus-producing counties had reports of record-low temperatures early today, said Richard Rude, a National Weather Service meteorologist near Tampa. Lakeland, in Polk County, recorded a low of 28 Fahrenheit (minus-2 Celsius), while at Archbold, the mercury fell to 18.

Last night’s freeze may have damaged less than 1 percent of the crop, said Dale Mohler, an AccuWeather meteorologist in State College, Pennsylvania.

Temperatures Jan. 10 and 11 will probably be a degree or two colder, falling below a critical 28-degree threshold for citrus crops, Mohler said in an interview. He said those lows must last three or four hours to damage crops significantly.

Threat to Citrus

Florida’s citrus crop may suffer “light damage” tonight as temperatures drop below freezing, according to Dan Kottlowski, an Accuweather meteorologist.

“Average low temperatures tonight will be in the upper twenties, very much like last night,” Kottlowski said in a phone interview today. It’s “ very possible that some of the groves could experience some light damage tonight.”

Florida’s orange crop will fall to 135 million boxes in the season through June from a year earlier, the smallest harvest in three years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Dec. 10. Last season, growers packed 162.4 million boxes, each weighing 90 pounds (41 kilograms). Florida is the largest orange producer after Brazil.

Orange-juice futures for March delivery fell 1.5 cents, or 1 percent, to $1.4205 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Earlier, the price rose to $1.4965, the highest level for a most-active contract since Jan. 2, 2008, on fears Florida’s citrus crop may be reduced.

Hog and cattle futures fell on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Heating Oil Futures

Heating oil for prompt delivery at New York Harbor has risen 14 percent in the past 10 days, the longest rally since July, according to Bloomberg data. The fuel added 0.09 cent to $2.1950 a gallon as of midday today, the highest since October 2008.

Natural gas priced for prompt delivery at Henry Hub in Erath, Louisiana, rose 27.93 cents, or 4.5 percent, to a 13- month high of $6.4712 per million British thermal units at midday today on the Intercontinental Exchange, according to Bloomberg data.

Aluminum jumped to a 15-month high as the freeze in China boosted speculation that output of the metal used in cars and airplanes may be disrupted. Aluminum for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange rose $75, or 3.3 percent, to $2,377 a metric ton after touching $2,394, the highest since Oct. 2, 2008.

“The bad weather in China is raising concerns of power shortages and delivery problems,” said Wang Zhouyi, an analyst at China International Futures (Shanghai) Co. Energy accounts for as much as half the cost of making aluminum. “We haven’t heard about production cuts” yet, Wang said.

Cold Front Moving

The cold front in China was forecast to move south today, lowering temperatures by as much as 8 degrees Celsius, the China Meteorological Administration said. Temperatures in Beijing dropped as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius overnight, the coldest for this time of year since 1971, the agency said.

Natural gas demand in Beijing has climbed “dramatically,” the city government said yesterday.

French electricity demand may reach a record next week as temperatures are expected to drop as much as 7.7 degrees Celsius below average, the grid operator Reseau de Transport d’Electricite said today on its Web site.

Temperatures were at or below freezing across most of northern and central France, sinking as low as minus 4 degrees Celsius in Paris, according to the French forecaster Meteo- France.

Power for delivery in Germany tomorrow advanced 19 percent to 51.50 euros ($74.10) a megawatt-hour, according to broker prices on Bloomberg. The corresponding French contract jumped 25 percent to 65 euros.

In northern Denmark, Danish army soldiers helped clear roads of as much as 45 centimeters of snow that caused public transport delays and at least 25 school closures. Aalborg airport, Denmark’s second-biggest, was briefly closed today.


Buck