Friday, June 26, 2009

Another day of Tampa Sunshine: NOT! The heavy morning rain flooded streets. How fun is that?


I do love it when we actually get a real hard downpour. We are still under tight water-use restrictions and fresh, potable water is hard to come by. What we need on Florida's west coast is a good hard daily rain that soaks in and gets to our aquifer...but that isn't happening much. The sunshine that is falling every day is beautiful but makes a person and plants kind of thirsty. Even before daylight this morning, the welcome sound of rain drops could be heard. And lightning strikes all around. It was pouring and continued most all morning. I ventured out and had to pull over to try to capture Tampa drivers, going about their business, navigating some of our more flooded intersections. Tampa sits right on the water so if it's high tide, and it really rains hard, the rain that doesn't make it into the ground has no where to go. It stands, like on these streets. Cars and trucks of every size - and height - tried to go through without stalling out. Actually, it's pretty funny watching the circus of dodging and weaving as drivers try to avoid the bigger waves caused by the 6,000 lb. SUVs that fill our neighborhood and roads (chosen specifically because you sit well above every other regular vehicle and you are far superior.) The little 90-lb. moms have to get the youngsters to daycare - even if the water is two-feet deep at the driveways and they can't get into the the MacDonald's drive-thru without a flat-bottom boat and oars. I hope your day is filled with plenty of sunshine and just enough rainfall to fill your rivers and reservoirs. It's darn hard to drink 95-degree liquid sunshine everyday.

6 comments:

  1. A very different weather situation compared to the Swedish weather, that's for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for dropping by Leaves of Grass. You have great blogs with beautiful pictures!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That does not look like fun! Amazing amounts of rainfall.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dontcha just love those monster vehicle that leave towering waves washing over your car just as you wonder if you're gonna make it through the puddle?

    Thing is, in Florida, the water recedes fairly quickly ... well, in some places.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Have to say, I don't miss it a lick. Apparently So.Fla. has been getting more than it's share as well.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Looks like Manila's streets during flash floods — which happen often during the rainy season (now). Thank goodness our drivers don't like getting their brakes wet. These guys don't seem to care if there are pedestrians around!

    ReplyDelete