WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — If you've lived in Florida for any period of time, you know this weather pattern is a bit unusual for this time of year.
So why is it happening?
When you come to the South Florida Fair, you’ll see a big display highlighting Florida agriculture. But to grow all the fruits and vegetables, you need the right weather. And that’s certainly not what we’ve been experiencing lately.
"The worst thing is we haven’t been able to stay on any kind of schedule," said Tommy Holt, who grows sweet corn at Twin H Farms in Belle Glade.
Holt preps for the sweet corn fiesta every year. But this winter weather pattern is not making it easy.
"I don’t know what kind of problem it’s going to cause later on, but it’s been tough trying to stay on schedule with any of it," Holt said.
So what’s with this January weather that's bringing lots of wind, rain, and even some tornadoes along with it?
"The storms basically do this. Affect us here in South Florida and then start to climb back north," said WPTV First Alert Weather meteorologist Steve Villanueva.
Villanueva said we can thank El Niño, which comes around every couple of years.
"We have a more active jet stream pattern with the El Niño, and that brings us more clouds, more rain. We have more fronts that come through," Villanueva said.
It's the same weather pattern that protected us from hurricanes over the summer, now bringing problems in the winter.
"When we expect all the sunshine and the dry air and the comfortable temperatures, we're not seeing that because we have front after front after front that comes on through and affects our weather pattern," Villanueva said.
So farmers like Holt will continue to adjust and make the most of what they have.
"We probably won’t end up planting our entire crop because we’ll run out of time," Holt said.
Farmers hope this pattern starts to dissipate soon. Meteorologists said the El Niño may stick around through March, and we'll see what happens after that.
"In the eight years I've been living here, this is by far the cloudiest winter I've seen," Villanueva said. "It's nice because our temperatures are in check. But it would be nice to see the sun every once in a while and have a nice break day."
