Cant Keep Quiet!

Central Florida has been experiencing a long and brutal cold spell since the beginning of the year.  Last night temperatures dropped into mid to low 20s for most of the night.

Temperatures are typically in the low to mid 70s this time of year.  Yes, it may drop to the 50s or even 40s but that typically last about two days and then the temperatures are back in the 70s.

A cold front moved in on New Year’s Day and it’s been unseasonably cold ever since.

Yesterday was brutal.  The Weather Channel says we got up to 42 degrees.  Who knows, maybe at 7 am in the morning but the temperature at my house never rose above 36 degrees.  Last night the temperatures dropped into the mid 20s.

Homes aren’t built for this sort of weather here.  This house was built for the summer heat.  It stays cooler during the summer due to its construction.  That means when it gets brutally cold like it has been the house is difficult if not impossible to get warm.  The heat pump runs virtually non stop just to get the temperature to something reasonable.

Schools have also been having trouble keeping students warm.  In Orange County alone, 13 schools had no heat for all or part of this week.  Each school had a different reason for not having heat, though.

Even if the school had heat it didn’t mean that the entire school was warm.  My school had heat, but my office and several of the classrooms that run off the same system in my building were frigid at best.  The air conditioner folks from the county are looking into the problem.  As of Friday, though, it hadn’t been fixed.

It’s supposed to get into the 20s again tonight and tomorrow night.  Tuesday night will be in the 30s.  It will start to get back to normal Central Florida weather by Friday.  That’s two weeks worth of winter weather instead of the usual 2 or 3 days.

Schools were cancelled across most of Central Florida again today.  Too many places had no power or flooding to make it safe to transport using buses.

Fay is finally heading out of the area, maybe.  Who knows with this one.  She may decide to turn back on come here again.  Even on her way out, though, it is still raining, raining, raining.

Personally, I thought they should have closed schools yesterday.  I fought my car most of the way home yesterday.  At times, winds were so strong that it seemed my car was going to change lanes against my will.

I’m including a picture of part of the lake one street behind my house.  In the front of the picture is a stream that is normally about 3 feet lower than seen in the picture.  In the mid-upper region of the picture you can see some plant life just above the water.  Those plants are on a spit of land.  The plants height is normally a good 3 feet above the water line.

Technorati Tags: tropical storm Fay

I’m sure that there isn’t a single resident in Florida that doesn’t wish that tropical storm Fay would just go away already.  We have flooding and wind damage and homes destroyed due to tornados and Fay doesn’t look she’s going anywhere any time soon.

Most of this damage had been occuring on the east coast of Central Florida.  We’ve been getting lots and lots of rain here but no flooding to the extent Brevard County has seen.

Fay has been moving at a snails pace.  This has resulted in 2 feet of rain in some areas.  The ground just can’t handle that much rain and neighborhoods have been flooding.  People have shot pictures of catfish swimming in their yards and an alligator was swimming through one neighborhood.  The alligator has been taken away.

Click here to see some of the pictures that people have taken.

Technorati Tags: flooding, tropical storm Fay

No, not the presidental race.  Hurricane season.

In 2004, school started and was in session for less then a week when hurricane Charley decided to come visiting.  This year it is Tropical Storm Fay that is expected to hit this area sometime tomorrow or Wednesday.

School started today for most counties in Central Florida.  Most of these counties have closed their public schools for tomorrow.  We won’t know if we’re back in session on Wednesday until tomorrow afternoon.

There are some important differences between Charley and Fay.  Charley was a level 3 hurricane when it hit Florida’s shores.  It was also very, very fast.  Fay is still just a tropical storm.  It might be a level 1 hurricane when it hits Florida’s southwest coast tomorrow morning.  It’s also moving slowly and a bit erratically.

For a while it looked like Fay would just skirt the coast of Florida.  Now it looks like it hit between Sarasota and Naples.

Hopefully this is a one day only event for the entire hurricane season.  I definitely don’t want to get into the school starts/school’s on hold cycle that happened in 2004.

If you’re interested, read my farewell to 2004’s hurricane season.

Technorati Tags: hurricane Fay

Technically it’s Tuesday, but it might as well be Monday.  At least as far as the work week goes.

This is an odd week for me.  Three out of the fours school/work days will be shortish days for me.  Due to meetings or other obligations, I’m only at my school for about 1/2 the day.  Friday will be the only full day.

It did rain today.  Sunny skies with heavy rains.  Very odd.  It lead to several rainbows, though.  I even saw the end of one rainbow.

Didn’t see the pot o’ gold, though.  Pity.

Technorati Tags: rain