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Blogs by Bobbi Ann Duffy
Between Storms 8/24/2006 11:39:04 AM
Sometimes living in paradise has its drawbacks. Hello, My Friends,
There are probably a lot of you who wish they could live in places like Florida so that you can have sunshine and warm tempretures all year, never have to get out you snow blower again in your life, and spend your days lounging on the beach getting a beautiful suntan. Sounds great doesn't it?
Those who live well north of us have four seasons a year each very different from the one before it or the one after it. Florida has four seasons a year too. First there snowbird season, it begins in early to late November. It's the time of year when all the "formally frozen" northerners and Canadians come to spend the winter months. It last for about five months, and the retailers take full advantage of it. The cost of everything goes up. Of course, the prices never come back down.
Nest on the list of seasons in the Sunshine State is Spring Break Season. After a short lull, about three weeks after the last snowbird leave, the college crowd arrive to party.
It used to be that all the colleges held spring break at the same time, but that's changed. Over the course of two months about three million college students arrive in staggered groups to stager around drunk, high and half naked in anyplace that has a beach. The cost of crowd control, extra patrols and additional police and the prices for food, beer and other alcoholic beverages rise again neve to go down.
On the heels of Spring Break Season comes a non-human impact on paradise. It's called Steam Bath Season. Now I know that lots of you see a great deal of rain showers in the spring and it gets hot in the summer, but in Florida the two combine to make a very rainy season usually referred to by those who live here as "It's four o'clock do you have your umbrella opened. Being surrounded on three sides by major bodies of water, and being in the sub-tropics we can count on thunderstorms almost everyday of the summer. Unlike the midwest where you can watch a storm on the horizon for days before it actually get to you, here the storm builds right above your head. Combine the constantly high moisture coming off the three bodies of water and the sub-tropical heat and Abracadabra, instant thunderstorm. And just so we can't really clock the and defend ourselve adequitely from them most days one dreanching is not enough. With the humidity and the heat, walking outside of your front door is like walking into a steam bath. Those of us who wear glasses use a lot of tissues to clean the steam off every time we walk in or out of a door.
I have saved the best season for last, Hurricane Season. You must understand that portions of Steam Bath Season run concurrant with Hurricane Season. From June 1 to November 31 the weather channel is the most watched channel in Florida. Some seasons are relatively quiet with only one or two land falls, but then there are the record breaking seasons like 2004 when Florida was hit by four hurricanes in five weeks. Both coast were devestated. Charley, Francis, Ivan and Jean blanketed and battered the state unmercifully. Parts of the state were hit by all four. There are places in Florida that still don't have reliable electricity, and whole business districts no longer exist.
So, my friends, the next time you want to visit Florida call me and I'll tell you what season it is, and what survival gear to bring with you.
If you enjoyed this little tirade, leave me a message. It would be nice to know what you think of it, and I'l love to know who I'm talking to.
