Summer Weather

Weatherwise this has been one wild and weird summer.

Tornados, floods, fires, locusts, frogs.

The last two were jokes.

Have you been watching the evening news? You know when they lead with weather something is wrong. This summer it seems like it's been the top story a lot. Planes dropping that red stuff over fires in the wilderness. Dams almost bursting, delays at airports due to bad weather and it seems heavy rain everywhere.

If you want to get depressed...

It feels like every day you see firefighters, first responders, just everyday people, all looking dazed and confused, battling what ole Mother Nature has brought.

I have a daughter who lives in California and it's been blazingly hot and dry. There are out of control wildfires all over the West. I have a dear friend who lives in Lynchburg, Virginia. The dam there was threatening to burst so evacuations were the order of the day. My father lives in Maryland where the flooding has been really bad. I lived in New York city for over 20 years and a tornado touched down there.

I've never heard of that.

I haven't even mentioned the state I live in, Florida.

It's rained here the most I've ever seen it rain and I've lived here 14 years. And not just rain but rain. Raining so hard that you can't see your neighbor's house across the street.

That's hard.

If you want to start a conversation go to a store and as you're checking out casually say to the cashier, "Sure has rained a lot this summer."

And then stand back.

I've always said that a rain storm up north is just a rain storm. Down here? It's like the end of the world. With thunder so loud my dog barks.

There are a couple of good things here as far as lots of rain is concerned. First of all, Florida is hot. Rain helps to make it cooler, not much, but cooler nonetheless. Also the lawns down here are lush. I'm sure they can't believe how much water they're getting.

I'll tell you a secret...my wife is a gardener and she has a sign that says 'Gardeners know the best dirt.' Our house has plants all around it. When it doesn't rain she has me water the plants with the hose. When it does, as they say, "I'm good."

That kinda has me hoping for rain.

The ponds around where I live are filled to the brim with water. Last year at this time we had a drought and all the water levels were way down.

What filled them up then was that thing that begins with H. We had a big one last year. Irma. And here's the rub. Our worst months for them are September and October.

Look at the calendar. It's August.

That's bad news.

We've already had rain, rain, and more rain. We still have the potential of what's to come. And you can file it under you ain't seen nothing yet.

Run, Forrest, run.


#MarkMcEwen
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