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| A small tornado crosses a pasture in Venus, Florida |
We needed the rain. In fact, we need lots more rain. Tropical Storm Debby is moving at a slow crawl toward Florida's NW coast and the Florida Panhandle and is predicted to continue this slow pace across the state's northern counties. We've already seen a 4.5 inch rise in our lake level here, several hundred miles SE of the storm. That is a fair increase for a 3800 acre lake. That brings our lake level
up to just over last spring's low point. (The lowest lake levels are normally in about April as we get very little rain in the cool weather months--hence our moniker, the Sunshine State.) It is raining as I type this, and the rain should continue for several more days. The main issue with rain from a tropical storm is the increased danger of severe weather, that is wind bursts and small tornadoes. That happened yesterday in fact. A small tornado ripped through the Venus area just south of us. The same storm hopped over us and the lake, then tore into a bunch of homes on the north end of our lake. Now these are very small tornadoes by the standards of the Midwest, Tornado Alley, or other such spots up north. But yesterday's storm did leave a woman in Venus dead and her young child seriously injured.
But this is a blog about bicycling, so the effect of Tropical Storm Debby is frustration, increasing boredom, and way too much time on our hands. All I can say is we will have very clean and shiny bikes on our next ride. Not to mention tidy gear bins, etc. (This sucks...)
