A dry season ghost lurks in the swamps.
But that’s not because we’re nearing Halloween –
It’s there all year round.
Although you can’t see it,
Starting each year around Halloween:
You can see what it does.
Halloween, by the way, is a translation from the Old Irish term for “End of Summer,” which is very fitting for south Florida –
It is the final day of the last rainy month of the summer wet season.
The day after – November 1st – ushers in the traditional start of the multi-month disappearing act of south Florida’s the summer stockpile of surface waters,
Which vaporizes (ghost like) into thin air.
Waters disappear first in the pinelands, and then on down the wetland ladder, until slowly – over the course of the winter dry season – the water is gone.
This year swamp stage crested early in mid September.
Since then, waters have been steadily dropping throughout the preserve. Surface water has receded out of the pinelands and is already down a half foot from its wet-season peak.
For those that don’t know this neck of the woods, the swamps can look scary,
But this is one ghost that no one need fear:
We call it evapotranspiration – it has a very sunny disposition.
4 comments:
Another clever post, Bob... You have a really creative side!!!!! Wonder if anyone has dressed up as a "Sunny Ghost" or a "Dry Ghost" or even a "Wet Ghost" on Halloween???????? ha ha
So the end of Summer is around Halloween down there???? Does that mean that you do into FALL in November???? When does Winter begin down there???
Interesting post.
Betsy
Betsy has a good question. I remember that Christmas's were always warm in Miami in the '60's--(temps. in the 70's or occasionally even the '80's.) It got cold (sometimes 30's) in late January and February for a 8 or 9 weeks, then Spring started and you could go to the beach again. Is it still that way?
You are a really creative and "captivating," writer! You capture my interest before I have a clue what the subject is and I stay interested right to the end!
I agree with the others too, I never know what your seasons are there since here in Michigan they are so well defined!
That's a good question, and one that I've thought long and hard about over the past decade in Florida. The signs are there, only they are more subtle, for example you know its really cold out, not by snow, but by the lizards moving very slowly.
The four seasons are often replaced by the summer wet and winter dry seasons, each of which has its shades of gray.
As for temperatures, by Fargo standards we never leave fall. We do get winter like blasts, but they usually only last for a day or so.
This is a topic I will explore more as we move into winter, so stay tuned.
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