It’s unusually narrow. You could literally throw a rock across it in most places. (That’s assuming you could find a rock!) Most sloughs are endless as far as the eye can see.
Even more perplexingly, it runs in a due east-west direction. Most flow systems in the preserve – whether they be forested strands or marshy sloughs – have a north-south component to them.
But most shockingly (although not altogether surprising this year), Gum Slough has gone almost completely dry.
Or, at least, as dry as we’ve seen it!
Above is a short video clip of a cypress enclosed marsh in Gum Slough where we monitor its water levels, filmed just last week.
12 comments:
Wooooo Bob...That is really really dry, isn't it???? I saw only one big puddle... Hope the spring rains come soon to south Florida.
Betsy
It's also very dry here at the moment. I feel like living in the sahara. Yesterday it rained for a while, but now it is extremely hot again. Hopefully the rain will visit us again. Have a great weekend :)
I wonder if this is part of a larger weather cycle, or due to 'climate destabilization'.
I enjoyed the journey, Robert. Thanks for the ride!
It might be time for us to do a little rain dance because our rainy season won't come soon enough...
When is the Everglades hydrology helicopter field trip? :)
Is Gum Slough drier than other sloughs or is this totally unusual?
Water, water nowhere. We are as dry as can be here, too.
Thanks for your comments.
This is an unusually dry spring, at least since I've been here and from what I've seen over the past 10 years. I would say that it's in the natural range, although it does seem the past couple years that our droughts have been more frequent and deeper than the decades before.
Rob: Very nicely shown from the helicopter, we got colder and had rain today.
Thanks for stopping by. This is an interesting video clip. How deep is the slough normally this time of year?
Good question: the middle of the marsh was 2 ft deep at the end of the summer (our wet season). But that pool is slightly deeper, probably closer to 3 ft deep.
Reminds me of my husband..he'll take pictures of the inside of engines as well as underneath cars (work he's done)so as to have it handy for customers (he's a mechanic). I wander around the yard snapping shots of bugs, petals or ya..lizards mugs- as close up as I my camera will allow?
Interesting..so was the chat with the car salesman-
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