Weekly Photo Challenge: Regret

The Florida “rainy season” begins June 1 and continues to the end of November. Nearly every day between 3-4pm, dark clouds roll in to a soundtrack of thunder and a lightshow of electricity.  Even on days when the sun’s been alone in the sky since dawn, Florida is the lightning capital of the U.S.—a deluge can start any minute….or not!

Here is a picture I took while standing in my side yard on June 14, 2011.  It has not been altered in any way beyond straightening and cropping:

"I bring regrets. I will not rain today," said Cloud

I could NOT believe it didn’t rain that afternoon….I was expecting a tornado from the looks of things!!  I ran around bringing my container plants inside, along with anything else from the yard with “missile-like” tendencies. Even though the temperatures that day (and entire week) were in the mid to upper 90s, nothing happened. I had to find out why!

Turns out, last June was one of the driest in years because a mean high pressure ridge was stuck in place over Florida and the Atlantic Ocean  When that happens,no fronts pass in: no convection means no relief, aka rain!

Of course, rain finally arrived on the last few days of June, but not enough to change things. We were still in the midst of the worst drought since 1942, and that didn’t change until the incredibly intense “No-Name” storm of  October 9  dumped 8″ of precipitation in 24 hrs, flooding the ranchero and toppling palm trees….but thats a story with pictures for another day!

Until next time!

• Drought
• Florida
• No Name Storm
• NOAA weather
• postaweek2012
• Vero Beach