 |
| Somewhere between Miami and Naples |
May 17, 2013
Why you still need your watch
Early May rains can be deceiving:
Normal monthly rain totals are already met, meanwhile the weather has once again turned dry.
Click on the links to view
detailed rain charts for each basin
Any rain that falls after May 1st I count in the rainy season half of the year.
But South Florida's true meteorologic wet season is still waiting to begin.
That usually happens between mid month and Memorial Day.
It in part depends on night-time low temperatures (consistently staying above 70 degrees) but also hinges on the location of regional high pressure systems which -- if they perch over the southeast -- can stifle the onset of normal sea and land breeze storms. You know the wet season has begun when you can practically set your watch to the afternoon darkening of skies (just don't plan on being on time -- clouds are not as accurate as atomic time).
In summary, mid May finds us paradoxically well above normal ...
Yet in a dry spell waiting for the summer rains to begin.
Normal monthly rain totals are already met, meanwhile the weather has once again turned dry.
detailed rain charts for each basin
Any rain that falls after May 1st I count in the rainy season half of the year.
But South Florida's true meteorologic wet season is still waiting to begin.
That usually happens between mid month and Memorial Day.
It in part depends on night-time low temperatures (consistently staying above 70 degrees) but also hinges on the location of regional high pressure systems which -- if they perch over the southeast -- can stifle the onset of normal sea and land breeze storms. You know the wet season has begun when you can practically set your watch to the afternoon darkening of skies (just don't plan on being on time -- clouds are not as accurate as atomic time).
 |
| Appearances are deceiving: the monthly bar chart shows May at its midway point to already be full even though the past two weeks have largely been dry. |
In summary, mid May finds us paradoxically well above normal ...
Yet in a dry spell waiting for the summer rains to begin.
May 16, 2013
How April fell short
April was very rainy by spring standards,
But it fell way short of being a Big Rain Month (BRM).
What is a BRM?
It's any month when an average of 9 or more inches of rain fell across the entire south Florida peninsula. That doesn't happen much, but when it does it all but ensures that even the highest ground gets shallowly submerged. By my calculations we've only had 4 BRMs over the past eight years, all of which fell during the summer half of the year. Isaac gave us our last one (Aug 2012) and October 2011 before that.
June 2005 stands out as the biggest BRM of them all.
But it fell way short of being a Big Rain Month (BRM).
 |
| Big Rain Months of South Florida, 2005 - present |
What is a BRM?
It's any month when an average of 9 or more inches of rain fell across the entire south Florida peninsula. That doesn't happen much, but when it does it all but ensures that even the highest ground gets shallowly submerged. By my calculations we've only had 4 BRMs over the past eight years, all of which fell during the summer half of the year. Isaac gave us our last one (Aug 2012) and October 2011 before that.
June 2005 stands out as the biggest BRM of them all.
May 15, 2013
Hydrograph flummoxed (but not surprised)
Sometimes hydrographs don't tell the full story:
Even when they are jam packed with all the information they can hold.
The hydrograph of Lake Okeechobee above would appear to indicate that lake stage is just right -- not too high and not too low. But just last week I read an article by Andy Reid in the Ft Lauderdale Sun Sentinel (view article here) that the U.S. Corps of Engineers was preparing to release water out of the lake into the downstream estuaries as a precaution against coming wet season rise. More commonly we call that wasting water to tide and also polluting the estuary, too.
The flip side is that it helps ensure the structural integrity of the perimeter levee.
Water management decisions are increasingly multi-use and inevitably zero sum games.
Even when they are jam packed with all the information they can hold.
 |
| The above hydrograph shows current stage in Lake Okeechobee relative to ecological and historical statistics. For example, current stage (blue line) is plotting right on top of the 20-year median (dotted white line) for mid May, which in ecological terms puts the wetting from in the middle of the littoral zone, i.e. interior levee wetlands, and in engineering terms is about a foot and a half below the base of the perimeter levee. |
The hydrograph of Lake Okeechobee above would appear to indicate that lake stage is just right -- not too high and not too low. But just last week I read an article by Andy Reid in the Ft Lauderdale Sun Sentinel (view article here) that the U.S. Corps of Engineers was preparing to release water out of the lake into the downstream estuaries as a precaution against coming wet season rise. More commonly we call that wasting water to tide and also polluting the estuary, too.
The flip side is that it helps ensure the structural integrity of the perimeter levee.
Water management decisions are increasingly multi-use and inevitably zero sum games.
May 14, 2013
Last hurrah? -- If so, enjoy it!
Ever notice in the Age of Facebook how we focus on the visual at the expense of voice?
The same can be said of temperature and humidity.
Our latest cold front flies under the temperature radar,
But its crisp air this morning was a delight.
The same can be said of temperature and humidity.
 |
| The above graph displays high and low temperatures (blue) relative to historical norms and extremes (gray) in the background. The rise in temperature over the past few months has been gradual, but the summer humidity -- when it strikes -- will hit us like a metaphorical ton of bricks, although probably heavier. |
Our latest cold front flies under the temperature radar,
But its crisp air this morning was a delight.
May 13, 2013
May 12, 2013
Swamp saved by airstrip?
This airstrip saved the Big Cypress Swamp,
Or rather, it set in motion the events that would.
Hard to believe it's now been 45 years since it was built.
Or rather, it set in motion the events that would.
 |
| Miami-Dade Jetport is in Collier County's eastern edge |
May 11, 2013
May 10, 2013
May 9, 2013
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)