SEATTLE - Local produce dealers are warning the unseasonably cold weather in the fruit and vegetable-growing areas of California and Arizona will mean higher prices.

Some of the higher prices are already showing up on citrus fruit -- particularly oranges.

The cold snap has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Among the hardest hit are the avocado growers. Orchardist Steve Barnard looked at the brown, frost-damaged avocados on one of his orchards: "This was the first real big crop on this block and it is probably 90 percent gone."

Near Fresno, Calif., icicles hang from orange trees. The fruit is ruined and damage is estimated in the hundreds of millions.

In Seattle, that means you'll pay more.

John O'Meara of McPherson fruit said last week he sold oranges at 39 cents a pound. This week, he says it's up to 99 cents a pound.

Some like Brad DiLorenzo will keep on buying: "I enjoy them, plus they are supposed to help you not get sick. Vitamin C and all that stuff."

But O'Meara says on an average day, he sells about 30 boxes of oranges. He sold 10 Monday and says right now, the orange business seems to be off about 70 percent.

What else will you pay more for? O'Meara says: "Spinach, greens, collard greens, mustard greens, lettuce, romaine, red leaf -- most of that stuff all comes out of California."

He's backed up by pictures of dead lettuce, frozen broccoli, ruined strawberries and raspberries that John Hasson showed us at the Pike Place Market.

Hasson warns that everything will cost more and quality will go down.

"Cold weather affects produce," Hasson said. "It's not like a piece of steel."

So he says if you want a California vegetable, you'll pay more for something you might think would be worth a little less.

Right now it is the price of citrus that is going up, but growers in California say expect the price of everything grown in that state to go up by the first week in February.

California produces about 80 percent of the nation's winter fruits and vegetables. The California Secretary of Agriculture A.G. Kawamura says he's not estimating the size of the loss. But added "it will be very substantial."