Southwest Florida- Thursday morning's chilly temperatures and cold, dry winds are packing a one-two punch for some Southwest Florida farmers.

Early estimates coming into county extension offices put the damage at 10 to 15 percent of the area's crops, about a $15 million hit.

Gene McAvoy, director of the Hendry County Extension and a Regional Vegetable Specialist told WINK News, "It was a big hit to the area economy and particularly to the farmers that suffered the losses."

Growers say the citrus industry fared out okay, but some tomato, peppers, squash, cucumber and lettuce plants experienced some damage, mostly from the cold, dry winds.

This is coming at a time when farmers, especially tomato growers, say they were coming out of years of shortage.

"It's been very rough," said McAvoy, "We've had the hurricanes back to back a few years ago, we had a frost last year around February and each of the events, people lost a lot of money and they were hoping for a good year."

Jay Taylor, with Taylor and Fulton, Inc. says they've also dealt with drought and unseasonably high temperatures, resulting in smaller yields in their tomato crops. This year he says, it seemed like things were looking up. Taylor tells WINK News some of the crops damaged Thursday morning were just days away from harvest before the chill hit.

He estimates about half of his tomato crop experienced damage, whether it was to the exposed fruit or wind burn damage to the tops of the plants.

The good news is, the cold snap was not as bad as growers anticipated. However, it could be days or even weeks before the full extent is seen.

"All of those tissues that were injured, whether from wind or cold are prone to infection from bacteria or fungi, so farmers will have to spend more money on control measures. Fungicides and insecticides to keep that crop from falling prey to something else," said McAvoy.

Taylor says some of the smaller, less mature fruits and vegetables should be okay to harvest in the weeks to come when they are full grown. Since they were close to the plant, they may have been protected from the bitter cold winds.

Growers tell WINK News they do not believe the losses will impact what you will pay at the cash register. Taylor says the only impact he foresees, prices of tomatoes will not fall as he hoped.

There could be an impact felt on the area's 15,000 people employed by the farming industry. "There's a significant number of workers out there, maybe going to lose a days worth work a week or a couple of hours a week and for some of those low paying jobs that's a big hit," said McAvoy.

Growers say they continue inspections of their crops and salvage what they can.

"Keep on planting, that's all you can do," said McAvoy.

South Florida provides 70% of the country with fruits and vegetables during this time of year.