Northern Florida faces a second night in the 20s-about two weeks earlier than the historical average-as growers run overnight protections on citrus and vegetable crops around the state.
00:00Some of the coldest air the state of Florida has seen in the month of November arrived Tuesday morning and it has not been this cold since the 1990s. Now temperatures dropped into the 20s across North Florida and that prompted many growers across North Florida, especially the citrus farmers to have a long night as they monitored the temperatures and the weather. And tonight, you know, we're just only changing the night as far as we're concerned to probably just turn the water on
00:29just a little earlier because the wind is going to lay down during the day. That sumus for us are normally a November fruit. So usually by Thanksgiving, it's peaking right then and it just kind of falls off after that. But Thanksgiving is usually the best time of the year for us that sumus. But this year, they're just a little bit ahead of that time. So a little bit different year for us. The concern, of course, being what the freeze will do to these crops. Here in North Florida, the particular mandarin orange that grows here is a heartier
00:59breed so it can withstand the cold temperatures but within limits. So farmers were out in this part of North Florida turning on the irrigation systems and they were trying to keep a thin layer of ice around the citrus to keep it from getting too cold. Now in Florida, this cold weather never lasts long. And so a warming trend is expected as we head into the next couple of days. Farmers are hoping that this actual brief cool down will enhance the fruit, give it better color, better flavor, a better sweetness.
01:29That everyone will enjoy as we head into the holiday season. Reporting from Monticello, Florida, I'm Leslie Hudson for AccuWeather.
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