Local farmers are taking precautions to protect their plants ahead of Tuesday night's potential freeze.
The unusually cold temperatures could have a damaging effect on many crops across the area.
Kemp McLeod owns and operates McLeod Farms in McBee, and says he has seen the effects of late season freezes throughout his lifetime, working on the farm.
"My family's been in the peach business. I'm the fourth generation since 1916, so we're close to 100 years old in this farm," said McLeod.
McLeod says in his time running the family business, he's seen his share of the damaging effects of mother nature, including a late season freeze in 2007 that left him with only about 30 percent of his original crop.
"When a freeze comes along, you know, you always kind of draw up and figure it looks kind of bad, but at the same time, nature has ways of preserving itself," said McLeod.
McLeod doesn't leave everything to chance though.
In the past week he has taken various steps to protect his crops including covering all of the strawberry plants with frost blankets.
McLeod also plans to spend most of the night burning hay bales near his peach trees, and will also use a large fan that circulates warmer air from the ground, up toward the peach trees.
Now McLeod is hoping that a combination of good planning and possibly a little luck, will spare his crops from the worst of outcomes.
"We don't think it's gonna be significant. When those kinds of situations come along, usually it's a two day, three day event, this time it's only gonna be a one day event below freezing, so therefore we don't really expect a significant damage," said McLeod.
McLeod says dealing with the sometimes unexpected changes in weather, are all a part of farming, and something that he's grown quite accustomed to.
"We're out here fighting the elements, but that's part of the game that we play as farmers and we like a challenge and I guess I wouldn't be a farmer if I didn't like a challenge," McLeod said.
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