The biggest concern is wind chill, which will be in the mid- to upper 30s.
SARASOTA — Sarasota-Manatee residents yearning for snow flurries will likely be disappointed, but they should bring their plants indoors for the next few nights to protect them from frost.
Local farms and nurseries have been preparing for a potential freeze by moving tropical and potted plants indoors and covering landscaping with blankets. The forecast is for more cold, but it doesn't favor snowfall, according to SNN-TV meteorologist Marco La Manno.
According to the National Weather Service, the front that dipped into Florida has a 20 percent chance of rain in Sarasota-Manatee. The only snow forecast is for the Florida Panhandle, which has a meager 10 percent chance of a "wintry mix."
Forecasts call for highs of 50s and 60s and lows in the mid-30s through Friday, but cold air alone won't cause significant damage to crops, growers say.
"At about 34 degrees it starts to get scary," said Kim White, the owner of Fruitville Grove. "Up until that point you figure you can take some chances."
Fruitville Grove is one of the few open-air markets in the area open year-round. They are moving produce indoors at night and relying on micro jet irrigation to protect their crops overnight.
A micro jet is a tiny tube that distributes a mist of well water to a tree or an individual plant. It is calibrated to deliver different volumes of water each hour.
The irrigation system is placed on stakes on the north side of the plant and delivers a gentle mist that will raise the temperature around the plant a few degrees above freezing during colder weather.
The groundwater is about 70 degrees and causes steam to form.
"That does create a nice blanket or mist of warm air that protects the tree," White said.
This cold snap isn't the coldest that White has experienced in 30 years of owning the farmers market. There were four days of 19-degree weather in the 1980s that almost destroyed their entire operation.
White remembers how freezing rain glazed trees and fruit inside a cavern of ice, but oddly, the ice coating provided a protective layer that kept the trees above freezing (32 degrees).
Workers hand-picked frozen oranges and took them to the processing plant to be juiced. The fruit would have quickly gone bad after the freeze was over.
White said there is a simple test to see if an orange has been damaged: "Slice an orange open, and if there are white dots in the orange it will have been damaged probably beyond saving. ... If it’s frozen like that, you’d have to eat it immediately."
Nurseries
Scott Mumper, the general manager of Your Farm & Garden Center, 735 S. Beneva Road, was instructing his workers to move tropical plants like ixora shrubs, crotons and hibiscus plants indoors. He fielded calls from concerned customers Tuesday asking what they could do to protect their landscaping.
Mumper reassured them that cold air alone would not kill their gardens. If frost were to settle on the leaves it could cause some temporary damage.
"It would take something in the high 20s to do permanent damage," Mumper said.
It's still best to cover them up to cause minimal damage. Mumper said temperatures less than 60 degrees will cause leaves to turn yellow or fall off and threaten tender, new growth.
D.J. Lewis of Albritton's Nursey called this year's weather "just another winter."
"We take all our tender plants in the greenhouse," Lewis said. "We don’t even bother dropping the sides or running heaters — it’s not so much the air temperature, but the freeze.”
A lanai or a garage — even in the dark — is sufficient storage place to store plants until the cold front has moved on, Mumper said.