After long periods of drought and asking for rain, California has had its wishes answered tenfold. The Garden State has been hit with a series of storms that has left many residents scrambling to deal with the unprecedented rainfall.

The major problem facing California, especially in areas where the soil can’t absorb and retain water, is flooding. Some people have lost sentimental belongings, cars, and even their entire homes.

The rainfall hasn’t only affected residential areas, though. Farmland has flooded, changing the yield and times that crops can be harvested.

The effects of this flooding won’t stay confined to California. With a lower harvest, the groceries and food plans for many Americans will be affected.

According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the state is responsible for over one-third of vegetables and three-quarters of fruits and nuts in the United States. Dairy and livestock are also products that come from California farms.

FreightWaves predicts that this will dampen the “100 days of summer” – a period of late spring/early summer where freight increases due to the amount of crops that needs to reach other areas around the country. FreightWaves specifically points to strawberries and tomatoes as two products that might see a huge decline due to California weather.

Yahoo News reports on the shift from an historic drought to a deluge of rainfall as the result of a changing climate. The state has also seen unusual events, such as blizzard conditions in part of Southern California, and according to UCLA climate scientists, this weather whiplash is the result climate change.

At Class A Drivers, we’ve already seen an uptick in the demand for reefer drivers, or drivers for refrigerated vans that are used to haul groceries. Hopefully, the demand doesn’t lessen too much in the wake of a weak harvest.

For drivers that may need work, we always recommend creating a driver profile on Class A Drivers and submitting applications from there.