Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Florida Thunder Storm


As has been noted by Rob at the Inconsequential Opinion, one thing about living in Florida, compared to Britain, is that the Florida weather is generally very predictable.  At this time of year, for instance, the day starts out warm and gets hotter and hotter and muggier and muggier.  In the late afternoon, it will often rain, as the sky has taken up as much moisture as it can hold.  The process then pretty much repeats itself the next day and so on.

There are occasional bouts of more exciting weather, however.  Every now and then there is a thunder storm, for instance, when everything goes dark.  And I don’t just mean the sky - sometimes the entire neighbourhood power supply is temporarily knocked out and we have to rely on candles for an hour or more, which always reminds me of the British power worker strikes that I experienced as a kid back in the 1970s!

Anyway, the storm normally announces its arrival with the menacing sounds and flashes of thunder and lightning and then the sky lets loose a heavy rain shower.  Man and beast scramble for cover at this point.  I took some footage of a grey squirrel sheltering under our porch by clinging to the outside of the insect netting, which I found both amusing and somewhat cheeky.



11 comments:

  1. been through a few of those storms, only had to evacuate once for Hurricane Elena, which just sat out in the gulf, we got to hang out at my Mother's hospital where she worked, ate good and played poker, watched a Clint Eastwood Western, Kevin

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  2. The atmosphere can get intense and clostropohic in the lead up to a storm, more so than in the UK. I often think of the Bogey movie: "Key Largo" and wonder if it would be even better, if watched during the build up to a Floridian storm! hehe!

    The American comedian, Rich Hall, who lives in the UK, did a fantastic docu on how Hollywood portrays The South in movies, called Dirty South. One thing he points out is that you know you are in the South in a Hollywood movie because everyone is always sweating! lol It's worth watching if you ever get chance, it's both informative and amusing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohzWgzVruic

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  3. Oops! clostropohic = claustrophobic

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  4. Having been here since 2006, I've yet to really experience a tropical storm or hurricane! There was tropical storm Faye a couple of years back but it just brought some cloud.

    Part of me is really eager to go through a hurricane so I understand what the fuss is about (even though I live pretty close to the coast and would probably have to evacuate), because a couple of days of rain and 40mph wind is all the tropical weather I've seen, and we had plenty of that type back home :-)

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  5. Well maybe I should say "thunderstorm" then, instead of "tropical storm"? ;-)

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  6. How exciting...I loved the tropical storms we had in QLD (Australia)...the lightning shows over the ocean were astounding, whilst the bloody thunder was terrifying. But as you say, once the storm had passed the humidity was dripping...However, here in sunny England we very rarely hear a rumble...pretty dull really. Rob

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  7. @Robynne - A British Summer can be marvellous if the weather is good - but that can sometimes be a big "if"! :-)

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  8. That's pretty wild - never seen a squirrel hold on to a screen like that.

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