South Florida farmers are assessing damage after freezing temperatures swept across the region early Monday morning, with growers warning that the cold could soon lead to higher prices for fruits and vegetables.

At Kern Carpenter Nursery, owner Kern Carpenter said nearly 20% of his tomato crop was damaged by the overnight freeze.

“The wind died, and it got cold really fast. We did the best we could and still got burned,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter is not alone. Sam Accursio, a green bean farmer in South Florida, shared a video with CBS News Miami showing frost covering his plants just before sunrise.

“These plants were just like an ice cube. You could go up to them, and the leaves were crunchy,” Accursio said.

Accursio and his workers began watering crops before 1 a.m. in an effort to prevent frost damage, but hundreds of plants were still affected.

With another cold night in the forecast, farmers are preparing for more potential losses.

“They’re saying upper 30s, low 40s. We’re hoping we don’t have to crank up anything again,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter added that excess watering can also harm crops, creating another challenge for farmers trying to protect their fields.

At Robert Is Here, a popular South Florida fruit market established in 1959, shoppers may soon feel the impact.

Asked whether prices could increase, owner Robert Moehling Jr. said consumers should expect changes.

“100% you are going to feel it in the market. With the frost, it can cause damage, and having continuous days of frost makes it worse,” he said.

Accursio says green bean prices are especially vulnerable.

“In this particular case, the lack of product will probably drive the price up,” he said.

Despite the losses, some farmers say South Florida could help offset shortages caused by freeze damage in North and Central Florida.

Carpenter said he has already seen tomato prices rise and believes additional cold could make things worse.

“I would think in the next few weeks the prices would go up,” he said.

Farmers say they will need 48 to 72 hours to fully assess the extent of the damage and are still bracing for the impact of another cold night.

Smart and Safe Florida was looking to get an adult-use recreational marijuana amendment on the 2026 ballot.

• A petition group aiming to get recreational marijuana on Florida’s 2026 ballot says the state’s announcement of its failure is premature.
• The group, Smart and Safe Florida, believes it will meet the signature requirement once all submitted petitions are counted.
• Florida’s Secretary of State announced that the group failed to meet the nearly 881,000 verified signature threshold by the February 1 deadline.

A petition group pushing to get recreational marijuana on Florida’s 2026 November statewide ballot is saying the state’s announcement of its failure to gather enough signatures is “premature.”

Secretary of State Cord Byrd announced Feb. 1 that all 22 citizen-led proposed amendments to the state’s constitution failed to meet Florida law’s signature requirements.

Smart and Safe Florida, the group behind adult-use recreational pot, pushed back.

“We believe the declaration by the Secretary of State is premature, as the final and complete county by county totals for validated petitions are not yet reported,” a spokesperson for Smart and Safe Florida said. “We submitted over 1.4 million signatures and believe, when they are all counted, we will have more than enough to make the ballot.”

The group needed to have met 880,062 signatures by Feb. 1, but the Florida Division of Elections website only listed 783,592 verified signatures. For months, the number was slowly trickling upward, since the group had more than 662,000 verified in November.

People flying out of Miami International Airport knew there were going to be significant delays and cancellations due to the winter storm, but they didn’t know they would also be waiting in long lines before even heading inside to catch their flight.

“I mean, I get it, weather is weather. But I mean, if you look at this place, bags aren’t going to make the flights,” said traveler Logan Toby, who is heading to Dallas. “Hopefully, we make the flights.”

People flying out of MIA on Sunday were met by long lines. Already facing the fear that their flight would be impacted by winter weather, their nightmare started in the bag drop-off with a line stretching across the American Airlines ticketing area. 

“It’s a big mess,” said Desiree Cedgwick, who is traveling to Salt Lake City. 

Cedgwick had her sunny vacation impacted last week. 

“Our flight got canceled from Phoenix to Charlotte. So they rerouted us a few different times,” she told CBS News Miami. “We finally made it to Charlotte a day later. Had to get on the cruise that day. We sat on the tarmac for four hours, missed our cruise by three minutes.”

When she got to MIA with her family and saw the baggage line, it was like reliving a nightmare all over again.

“My kids are very nervous to travel back — they keep asking me if their flight’s cancelled or if they’re going to get home,” Cedgwich said. “We’ll get home eventually.” 

Passengers were eventually told that if their bag was tagged to be left in a designated area near the ticketing counter. Bags eventually piled up and sat as travelers made their way to another long line: TSA. 

Marybel Ellen Killburn, who is traveling back home to Tennessee, decided to arrive hours before her flight

“We knew it was going to be impacted, so we went to Joe Stone Crab — an iconic meal. We just got here and we’re going with the flow,” she told CBS News Miami.

Cold weather is causing delays and cancellations at South Florida airports

A spokesperson for MIA told CBS News Miami that due to cancellations and low temperatures, there would be delays with bag processing. 

At MIA, there was a total of 263 delays and 25 cancellations on Sunday. 

At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, there were 267 delays and 51 cancellations.