When I first thought about moving to Florida, I was amazed at the rainfall figures--from eveything I read it seemed that 60 inches per year was the norm.
I don't think we've ever had that much rain since I moved here, but we've had some pretty wet years. Our pond, Oak Lake, was full to the brim when we moved to our property in 2006. Every spring we would sit out on our screened porch and listen to the frogs singing. Where I come from in Africa, frogs croak, they do not sing. Here, they make wonderful music, with the deep bass tones of the bullfrogs harmonizing with the high pitched tree frog sounds.
Since then the pond has slowly dried up, as have so many of the lakes in Florida, and this winter we had no frog music. We didn't have a rain storm of any worthwhile significance for five months. Our well has started to "draw down". This means if too many people take water out of the aquifer, or underground lake, the water level goes down, until it is below the level of the pipes in the well, so they can't suck up any water.
I heard mutterings like "We need a hurricane. Florida hasn't had a hurricane since 2005." Yeah, like a hole in the head, I thought.
This Saturday afternoon the clouds built up, lighting flashed and thunder cracked. And then finally the rain came down in sheets. Oh joy!
After the storm everything was just so clean and fresh and it smelled new. Now we just have to hope we'll get more of the same.
