Weather, Water, and Climate Change
Until recently, Floridians could count on a daily drenching sometime in the afternoon—except during a few cool, dry winter months. Long-time Florida residents note that those predictable daily storms are fewer in number and lighter in intensity. And they tend to be random rather than predictable. Climate change is increasingly affecting weather on a local level, so much so that the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently changed the plant hardiness zones for the entire country. Atmospheric conditions, fossil fuel emissions, warming ocean temperatures and local land use may be behind the vanishing afternoon summer showers.
Paynes Prairie Dries Up
Matt Bledsoe, assistant park manager at Paynes Prairie State Preserve, explains the various issues facing park staff due to a lack of rainfall in the past year.The Gainesville region received no heavy tropical systems in summer 2011, Bledsoe said, which has strongly contributed to the ongoing drought and wildfire conditions at Paynes Prairie. The dry […]
