enjoy the summer weath-ah, dee-ah

Title of this entry is what some Mainers say during the summer months. You're in one of two modes when you say this. Either you're being sincere or making fun of anyone who says it. I'm the latter.

I admit I'm a bit of a weatherbug. No, I don't own a barometer. Or a thermometer for that matter. But I check the weather online periodically, particularly comparing there (Ballouville Connecticut, where I used to live) to here (Tampa Florida, where I'm living now).

There: 52.2° F and overcast. The description is "Cloudy. A chance of showers this evening...then showers with a chance of thunderstorms after midnight. Patchy fog. Locally heavy rainfall possible after midnight. Lows around 50. East winds 10 to 15 mph."

In other words, crappy. Fog is dense in some spots while in others it's clear as a bell (Northeastern CT is weird like that). Flash flooding is minimal unless you're a moron and try to drive over every set of train tracks you can find.

Here: 79° F and clear. The description is "Mostly cloudy with a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms. Lows 66 to 71. West winds 5 to 10 mph."

We'll be getting some t-storms tonight and tomorrow morning up until the afternoon, so the weather report says.

In the North where I used to live, rain usually comes slowly and more or less drifts through the region. When it comes, it's steady and manageable more or less. In other words, you have time to prepare should anything bad occur with the rainfall (like flash flooding or debris in the road or whatever). Rain in CT is cold the majority of the time and outright crappy. It's rare you ever get warm rain.

Here in Tampa the rain is a lot different. First of all it's warm which I'm still getting used to. Secondly, it hits hard and fast. When it comes down, it comes down. Third, it's short. Whereas rain in the North lasts for a while, over here it falls quick then takes off as fast as it appeared.. kind of like a sneak attack, like "Boo! Gotcha! rainrainrainrainrain Zip! Gone!" instead of CT rain which is like "I'm comin'. Eventually. When I do I'll stay for a while and make your life miserable. Then I'll leave when I feel like it."

Something like that.

The most interesting thing to me about Tampa rain is that it can pound the ground in the morning and the roads can be completely dry by the afternoon. No joke. Back in CT, when it got wet, it stayed wet all day even after the rain stopped.

I have to pay attention to the rain more here because of the sheer amount of rain that falls so quickly. It causes hydroplaning on the roads when driving because they're are flat and don't drain anywhere. The simple rule to follow is to just drive slower and you won't hydroplane. You should do that when driving in the rain regardless of where you are.

In addition, if you're going anywhere, tack on an extra ten minutes to get there if it's raining outside. Traffic crawls around Tampa when it's pouring out for obvious reasons.

Every time I even think about complaining about rain here (which I don't currently), all I have to do is think about what the weather was like back where I used to live. Then it doesn't seem bad at all. (grin)