Monday, May 9, 2011

Smokey Morning, Sunny Afternoon

I guess it's one of those Tail Of The Wet Season things.

This morning as I was taking Mrs Dog out, I stopped on the front porch and sniffed the air.   She did too.   The Everglades were burning again.

We didn't know where, how close or whether it was going to keep  smelling like someone was burning brush down the block all week but it was there. 

By the time we got home, we both smelled like the local Bar-B-Que place had backed up into the yard and we were helping make some ribs.

Mmm Ribs.

Slow cooked or not, the smoke came from more than 25 miles away, in the center of the state in Big Cypress National Preserve.   The winds were just right, a Land Breeze and fairly strong to blow that smell in from all that far off.

As the day gets warmer, the city will heat up.  As Downtown Fort Lauderdale and the surrounding sprawl warms, it creates an area of heat.  This heat will rise and pull in air from the Ocean, since it's only 2 1/2 miles off, and blow this stuff off.

As I look out the window, I can see that is already beginning to happen at 10AM.  The palm trees have begun again to sway but now away from the Ocean, down the block and over the intracoastal.

This effect is pronounced and helps to keep the air in South Florida cooler than it would be if we were all more inland.   The "OTP" areas that are Over The Turnpike are typically warmer until you get back out close to the Everglades, when they're not burning.

It's well known that this effect works and can be a source of non polluting energy if you wanted to stick a windmill in the yard.

Somehow I suspect it would not be acceptable to Code Enforcement, but the idea of sticking a 20 foot tall tower somewhere is amusing in a way.

Or it would be until the next windstorm turns it into a propeller.  Just look at that suckah go... and relocate the house another 20 feet south!

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