00:00Leslie said in Florida, we do thunderstorms, we do hurricanes, we don't do the cold.
00:07Leslie, I'm so glad you made it through the night.
00:09You know, it's touch and go there with freeze warnings and unceasingly cold temperatures
00:13in the mid to upper 20s means some Florida farmers have been pulling an all-nighter.
00:17Oh, some people didn't sleep.
00:19Since last night, AccuMethers Leslie Hudson joins us live near the Florida Georgia line
00:23in the border with more.
00:25Leslie, what was going on with the farmers?
00:30Yeah, you know, you guys nailed it 100%.
00:34I mean, there is a lot of unhappy Floridians out here this morning because it has been so cold.
00:40And we are here at the Florida Georgia citrus farm, which is really right on the state border.
00:46So we're just about 10 miles south of the state border in Georgia.
00:49And the farmers here were out here most of the night.
00:53Now, they took a break for a couple hours after dinnertime, came back around midnight
00:58and turned on the irrigation system.
00:59So over my shoulder here, you can see there is frost on the ground.
01:03And you can maybe see the sprinklers going.
01:06So that is their best defense when the temperatures dip to the freezing mark,
01:10which is where we're at here in Monticello, Florida.
01:13So this is the type of fruit.
01:16It's a type of mandarin orange that you would likely see on your Thanksgiving table in a fruit salad.
01:22So this particular farm actually exports all around the country, including your local grocery stores.
01:28And they have been here monitoring the weather, of course, all night long, checking in real time to see if they need to crank up the water a little bit more
01:38to get that layer of ice around the base of these younger trees.
01:42That's what they're really concerned, the younger trees that are maybe one year or even younger.
01:47But they're all trying to do what they can to mitigate this freezing weather.
01:52So as Florida continues to sit under this very cold umbrella this morning, the folks here are telling me that they're doing pretty good so far.
02:00But really, it's not going to be until they can get out in the field a little bit later this morning when the winds die down just a bit
02:07to see how things have been going in terms of their crop here.
02:11Typically, you don't see citrus this far north because we get freezes in North Florida.
02:16And the citrus tends to be in Central and South Florida.
02:20But this is a heartier fruit, as I mentioned, this mandarin orange, so they can grow them here in North Florida.
02:27And they start to really slow things down this time of the year in terms of the growing season because they know that they can get these cold snaps.
02:35However, they don't expect them this early.
02:37This is the coldest weather that Florida, for the most part, the entire state, definitely here in North and Central Florida, has seen since 1993, this November.
02:47And just one year ago, they were dealing with such a bad hurricane season with Helene and Milton and cleaning up from those hurricanes.
02:55So one year later, it just tells the tale that they're doing something completely different this year, trying to get their crops prepared for this freeze.
03:03The winds were up last night, so that did help the crops here.
03:07They were in the low 30s.
03:09I haven't officially checked the low here with the farmers, but I will find out what their official low here was this morning.
03:15But again, they have been out here watching everything in real time.
03:19And we talked to the general manager here, and he told me how they handle this when they are dealing with this bitterly cold weather so early in the season.
03:27These wraps are like a fireplace.
03:32The water is our fire, or our wood for it.
03:35And this wrap is our chimney, bringing the heat up to the top of the tree.
03:41When the temperature starts hovering around 35 degrees, we'll turn the water on then low.
03:46Like dripping the spigot at home.
03:47Do the same thing at home.
03:49We drip it, and as the temperature drops during the night, we'll turn more water, which turns more heat to the grove.
03:55Not hotter heat, but just more heat to the grove.
04:01So last year's hurricane season did have an impact on these citrus farms and in terms of production.
04:09But it also, if you recall, Florida had a big snow event in January of this year.
04:15It's hard to think.
04:16You think it was a year ago, but it was actually in January of 2025.
04:18And that actually had a bigger impact on the production of the fruit and vegetable crops here in Florida.
04:26So they are definitely keeping a close eye on things.
04:29The winds are supposed to die down tonight, so we're expecting even colder temperatures here tonight,
04:33which will be a bigger concern because they do have a fair amount of young trees here.
04:38But it's the one- to two-year-old trees that are the biggest concern for them.
04:42These trees over my shoulder are several years old, about three to four years.
04:45So they're a little bit hardier than the very young trees, but they're still concerned as we get into tonight
04:51and dealing with another night of sub-32-degree temperatures in this region.
04:57Again, this type of orange, it's a mandarin.
05:00It's called the satsula.
05:01And it typically is a hardier fruit.
05:04It typically can handle the freeze.
05:06But, again, a lot of the farmers around here were very nervous last night.
05:10We were not anticipating this cold of a snap this early in the season,
05:14and they've got another long night ahead of them tonight.
05:17Reporting live in Monticello, Florida, I'm Leslie Hudson.
05:19Back to you.
05:20It's a stressful job, but we appreciate all the farmers who put food on our tables every day.
05:24We appreciate Leslie braving the cold, bundled up.
05:28Not all heroes wear capes.
05:29No, now look at the north there, all bundled up.
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