'Absolutely bizarre.' Demand for firewood in South Florida is hot – and it's super-hard to find.

The chilliest air of the season was barreling toward cold-averse South Florida like whitewater on a river and Sheryl Brosseit’s phone rang nonstop.

For about 15 years, the 58-year-old grandmother has sold firewood from her 3-acre property in a remaining patch of bucolic Palm Beach County just nine miles from downtown West Palm Beach.

Despite South Florida's subtropical decadence, old homes and new luxury residences are outfitted with fireplaces for warmth or flourish – a novelty for the occasional cold snap.

But Brosseit also sells to restaurants with gourmet pizza ovens and rotisserie chicken, to families as conduit for campfire stories and burnt marshmallows, and to northern transplants yearning for the crackling nostalgia of home.

And this year, she's selling out.

In December, cars waiting in line for Sheryl's Firewood turned a rural road into a Chik-fil-A drive-thru at lunch hour. Her husband was forced to lock the gate to the property to keep people from arriving at all hours looking for something to burn.

“I was like, ‘Oh my word, it’s busy,’” said Brosseit, a petite blonde with the tan and friendly Southern charm of a country girl. “I’m a very simple person. I don’t like turning people away.”

Run on firewood 'absolutely bizarre'

On the first day of February, as a snowstorm clobbered the Northeast and wind chill temperatures in the 30s threatened the tender southern reaches of Florida, Brosseit had already made the decision she’d have to sell in bulk this winter to cut down on the crowds.

She hurried to get loads of Australian pine and oak to customers – mostly restaurants and garden centers that will package it into smaller bundles for residential sale. Awake since 4:30 a.m., Brosseit still wore a pearl necklace and matching earrings from a family baptism the day before, along with her cowboy boots.

AAA Garden Center is one of her regular stops. It had two pallets of firewood Tuesday with bundles selling for $8 each. They don't last long.

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“It’s absolutely bizarre,” said AAA Garden Center owner Eric Gordon about the run on firewood this season.

His stores receive calls from people willing to drive 50 miles to pick up the wood. He said he asked a firewood supplier if it could spare some pallets to keep up with demand.

“They laughed at us on the phone,” Gordon said. “It’s like the Hoover Dam broke versus a creek.”

It’s unclear why the wood is at a premium this season – possibly a combination of supply chain disruptions because of the coronavirus, an increase of seasonal visitors escaping other states’ COVID-19 restrictions, or more cold days.

Cooler temps and days this season

December was cooler than normal by about 1.3 degrees statewide. In West Palm Beach, December was 1 degree colder on average, making it the coldest year-end since 2010, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. January ended with mostly normal temperatures across South Florida.

But a roller coaster-like jet stream brought abnormal heat and abnormal chill to the Sunshine State so far this winter. West Palm Beach set a record high of 86 degrees Jan. 28. Five days later, the high was just 63 degrees – 12 degrees cooler than normal.

On Thursday, West Palm Beach's low temperature was 39 degrees at 7:05 a.m. That's 19 degrees cooler than normal.

“I think people are taking advantage of the cooler weather,” Gordon said. “It’s nice to see people going camping, spending time outdoors with family. It’s a good thing.”

As of Tuesday, Miami had 10 days this winter with a low temperature that was 52 degrees or below, according to Brian McNoldy, a senior researcher at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric science. The 30-year average is 7.9 days, McNoldy said.

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West Palm Beach has experienced 20 days this winter where the overnight temperature dipped to 52 degrees or below through Tuesday.

Who even has a fireplace in South Florida?

So while it may seem odd for South Florida homes to have fireplaces, it’s those kinds of temperatures that pioneers planned for when they began settling coastal Palm Beach County in the early 1900s, said Friederike Mittner, historic preservation planner for the city of West Palm Beach.

“They tended to be northerners and they brought their architectural styles with them,” said Mittner, noting it was a time long before central heat and air conditioning. “The fireplace was a means of getting through the few cold spells that we do get in winter.”

Fireplaces were mainstays until about the 1940s when architectural styles changed and electric ways of heating and cooling were introduced, Mittner said.

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“The high-end homes are all putting them in again, even maybe multiple ones,” Mittner said about fireplaces.

Outdoor fire pits, stoves and chimineas (outdoor fireplaces) have also become more popular, increasing the year-round use of firewood, said Meredith Sammons, who makes buying decisions for Home Depot.

'100 or more firewood phone calls a day'

Still, Brosseit said she noticed an increase in business in March 2020, about the time coronavirus lockdowns began. She thinks families may have been looking for new activities to entertain kids – s'mores and hot dogs on sticks as a diversion from screen time.

“The first thing I do when people call now is apologize,” Brosseit said. “Normally, I would love to accommodate them, but I just can’t because of the volume. Literally, I get 100 or more phone calls a day.”

Brosseit’s family also owns a backhoe business with connections to companies that clear land that can supply her with trees.

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Fred Stevens Firewood relies on suppliers from all over the state, which have been struggling to keep up with demand.

“It’s been insane, totally insane,” said owner Sandy Stevens, raising her voice above ringing phones in the background. “We normally would get five semitrailers of wood a week and I am now getting two, maybe four in a good week.”

Despite working seven days a week this winter, the firewood business has been a “blessing” for Brosseit, who previously worked in the restaurant and bar industry where late-night hours were getting more difficult for her and her family.

And although she isn’t selling to individuals currently, she has made exceptions. A property manager called to say his 87-year-old client uses her fireplace every day, including in summer when she turns down her air conditioning to accommodate the heat. He couldn’t find wood for her.

“Stories like that just pull at my heartstrings,” Brosseit said. "This work is so rewarding, you have no idea."

Follow Kimberly Miller on Twitter: @Kmillerweather

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: South Florida's temps are down. Demand for firewood is 'bizarre'.