Across U.S. agriculture, February 13 has often been a fulcrum date—when late-winter weather, farmer activism, and on-the-ground resilience converged to leave lasting marks on crops, livestock, infrastructure, and policy. From Florida’s coldest morning on record to the opening volleys of Texas’s 2021 deep freeze, this day has repeatedly tested producers and reshaped practices across the farm belt and the Sun Belt alike.

A morning colder than Florida had ever known: February 13, 1899

On February 13, 1899, Tallahassee bottomed out at −2°F—a reading that remains Florida’s only sub-zero official temperature on record. Part of the legendary 1899 Arctic outbreak, the cold wave delivered a brutal shock to the state’s then-northern and central citrus industry, burning foliage, splitting bark, and destroying groves that had seemed well south of true freeze risk. The freeze arrived on the heels of the twin “Great Freezes” of 1894–95; together, the sequence redrew Florida’s citrus map. Commercial plantings migrated decisively toward the central ridge and farther south near Lake Okeechobee and the Indian River region, while nurseries and growers doubled down on rootstock selection, site elevation, and cold-protection tactics.

Truck farms (winter vegetables destined for northern markets) also suffered in the Panhandle and north Florida, where tender crops had no defense against subfreezing air that lingered for days. The event became a case study in microclimate strategy—windbreaks, canopy management, grove heaters, and later-era microsprinkler systems—illustrating how a single morning can reorder both risk perception and capital investment for decades.

Tractors in the capital: Mid-February 1979 and the farm protest movement

By February 13, 1979, Washington, D.C., was still host to hundreds of tractors and farm trucks assembled by the American Agriculture Movement’s “tractorcade.” The convoy—part rolling demonstration, part lobbying campaign—pressed for parity pricing and stronger farm income supports during a period of rising costs and volatile commodity prices. Mid-February found producers shuttling between the National Mall and Capitol Hill offices, laying out first-hand accounts of credit stress and cost-price squeezes. The presence lasted for weeks, kept agricultural issues in national headlines, and foreshadowed policy debates that shaped the early-1980s farm program architecture and farm credit backstops.

Ice, timber, and poultry: The Southeast’s February 9–13, 1994 ice storm

Spanning February 9–13, 1994, a crippling ice storm plastered Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, and surrounding states with glaze that snapped power lines and flattened timber. By February 13, outages numbered in the millions. Agriculture bore a significant share of the damage: poultry houses collapsed under ice loads, growers scrambled for generators to maintain ventilation and heat, and dairy farms struggled to move and cool milk as roads iced over. Timber owners and loggers faced years-long recovery timelines as tracts of pines and hardwoods were shattered. The episode accelerated adoption of on-farm backup power and hardened structures in poultry and livestock operations across the region.

Snow and ice in the Deep South: February 11–13, 2014

A second major Southern winter storm in as many weeks peaked February 11–13, 2014, rimming Georgia and the Carolinas in ice and heavy, wet snow. For agriculture, the storm’s timing—before leaf-out for most perennials—blunted crop losses, but infrastructure and logistics took hits. Timber stands in coastal plains lost limbs and tops, nursery operations battled ice accretion in hoop houses, and poultry integrators again confronted roof-load and power-continuity risks. The event reinforced a lesson familiar to Southeastern growers: even infrequent ice can be disproportionately disruptive to supply chains and perishable production systems not engineered for it.

The week Texas agriculture turned to ice: Beginning February 13, 2021

Winter Storm Uri began its most punishing phase across Texas on February 13, 2021, ushering in days of extreme cold and widespread power and water outages. The agricultural toll rippled across sectors:

• Citrus and vegetables: South Texas grapefruit and oranges sustained severe on-tree losses and long-lived tree damage, while cool-season vegetables in the Rio Grande Valley—onions, leafy greens, brassicas—froze in the field.
• Livestock and poultry: Cattle herds battled wind chills and frozen water sources; poultry operations fought to maintain heat and air exchange amid grid instability, with some houses lost.
• Dairy: Milk dumping surged as processors and haulers were immobilized; parlor freezes and water interruptions compounded the strain.
• Row crops: Winter wheat across the Plains endured deep cold with mixed outcomes depending on snow cover, planting date, and hardening status.

Extension economists later tallied statewide agricultural losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In the aftermath, producers, utilities, and policymakers reexamined winterization—from backup generation and fuel storage to insulating water systems and reinforcing supply-chain redundancies for feed, fuel, and animal health needs.

What these February 13 episodes still teach

Late winter is a knife’s edge for American agriculture. Fields and orchards are largely dormant, but any misstep—an early bloom, a power outage during a cold snap, a thin snowpack over wheat—can magnify losses. Several durable lessons recur in the events clustered around this date:

• Microclimate and siting matter: Elevation, cold-air drainage, proximity to water, and windbreaks can be the difference between cosmetic injury and total loss.
• Infrastructure resilience pays: Poultry and livestock facilities benefit from load-rated roofs, redundant heat and ventilation, and tested generator capacity with on-farm fuel stores.
• Variety and rootstock choice is strategic: Cold tolerance, phenology, and chilling-hour fit can insulate specialty crops against outlier events.
• Operational readiness is decisive: Freeze protection gear (e.g., microsprinklers in citrus, row covers in vegetables), water system insulation, and contingency trucking keep products moving when roads and grids falter.
• Insurance and risk tools bridge the gap: Crop insurance and noninsured disaster assistance for specialty crops buffer the balance sheet when nature overreaches.

Climate trends are nudging winters warmer on average in many regions, but the risk profile is not softening in a straight line: earlier springs can raise freeze vulnerability, and prolonged cold snaps still occur. The history written on February 13—1899’s record lows, 1994’s ice, 2014’s glaze, and 2021’s statewide freeze—remains a live playbook for how producers adapt, invest, and advocate to keep food and fiber moving when winter bites hardest.