Tuesday June 21st 2022

The calendar defines today as the first day of summer. For all intents summer weather began several weeks ago. It is officially the summer solstice. The longest day of the year. That makes far more sense than trying to equate today with the beginning of the hot season.

In this area today was right on the average temperature wise, but drier than normal humidity wise. The temperature and humidity are climbing over the next few days. Triple digit temperatures are possible. The missing element is afternoon rain. It isn’t expected until the end of the week. Saturday was the last day with any rain in this area, but that wasn’t a significant accumulation. Most of the rain has been much further south on the Florida peninsula.

The retention ponds and the grass are showing evidence of the low rain totals. The ponds seem to be a foot lower than they were two weeks ago. A wide dirt line rings each pond and the overflow drains are well above the surface of the water. Some of the grass in the campground is starting to turn brown. The more established grass in the older part of the campground I’m staying in is still green. It is the newer and thinner grass areas in the recently completed parts of the campground that are showing the most heat stress. They do not have irrigation for the grass, only the trees and bushes.

Walking around the park today I didn’t see any Canadian Geese. After yesterday’s convention they are all somewhere else today. The family of ducks that have been a constant fixture in the big retention pond were also missing today. They may have been hiding back in the woods on the back side of the pond. I did see a heron along the bank on one of my walks. It was very careful not to allow people to get close. Just as I got into good picture taking range it would fly to the other side or further down the bank. I was only able to get one picture from a longer distance than I would have liked.