Well, it’s almost above 0° F here in Northeast Ohio, but the wind chill is still nasty. I’m off work today due to the weather–one of the perks of working in academia is adult snow days!
I never had snow days as a child, because I lived in central Florida. I never saw snow until I was about 12. We did have “inclement weather days,” or “hurricane days” is what they really were. Luckily, we never had to use any of those.
Florida has some very special weather. In the summer, it is 95° and humid, with afternoon thunderstorms. Every day. This is why weather forecasters get so excited when there’s a hurricane. It gives them something to do.
When it’s dry in Florida, there are forest fires. The year we moved to Ohio they were particularly bad. I went to summer tennis camp, and in the morning we would find ash all over the courts, blown in from nearby fires. On the highway as we left, all the underbrush, even some of the trees, were burnt out.
Sometimes in the winter it does freeze. This is very bad for agriculture, especially the fern and citrus growers. When it goes below freezing, citrus growers spray water onto their fruit trees–that way the water freezes to ice and assures that the tree’s temperature will stay around 32° F.
There are also lots of tornadoes in Florida. They have the highest average number of tornadoes per 10,000 sq miles. Did I mention I am terrified of tornadoes?
And yet, somehow, today I still find myself wishing to be in Florida. There’s no accounting for taste.
Jedi by Knight 
