THE AIR TEMPERATURE (vs. the water temperature) in my neighborhood is, as I key this, 58o F. It went up a couple of degrees since I awoke.
I’m sitting in the “office” in a heavy robe my daughter gave me — it has סבא written on it — and thinking about my First Year in the Sunshine State, c 1954.
I came to Florida from the Hoosier State, Indiana, where it is noticeably colder in the winter.
I recall walking around in a “t” shirt while kids who grew up here shivered in sweaters and jackets.
The next year I was wearing a jacket.
The other day, with the thermometer hovering at 60o F, I walked several blocks to a neighbor’s house in short sleeves. Others arrived in sweaters and a few in light jackets.
Something is amiss.
While I have been in and out of Florida most of my adult life, often ending up where cold and wind combine to provide a “feels like” temperature of 20 below (Gillette WY), south Florida has been “home” for more than 10 years running.
I should be cold when the temperature is in the 60s or less.
But, since there was no appreciable wind . . .
When I was a teen I was in Civil Air Patrol (Miami Composite Squadron 2, since dissolved) I spent a couple of summer weeks at Eglin AFB in north Florida.
Eglin had — maybe still has — a “climatic hanger,” a huge building in which the environment can be strictly controlled.
It was a warm summer day when we were ushered into a room in the hanger. The temperature was 0o F, the humidity was 0% RH, and wind speed was 0 mph. Cadets were dressed in “t” shirts.
DELIGHTFUL.
Because there was no wind, the respite from Florida’s heat was not only welcome, but enjoyable.
Of course all good things must end and after a few minutes we were ushered out of the 0/0/0 room and back unto the heat and humidity of north Florida.
I thought that in my “senior” years “cold” would commence at — say — 75o F. Apparently I’m made of “sterner stuff.” True, as I made the jaunt to the neighbors — a mere 4 city blocks — — the wind was negligible and the sun shore brightly, but it WAS only 60o F yet I considered it a beautiful day.
Today, it truth be told, the air temperature in the early morning hours was mid-50s. My friend in north Florida welcomed an air temperature of less than 40o F.
While I am loathe to visit any state in the winter where signs read Bridges freeze before roadways or similar, I still have my overcoat and its zip-in lining and I still hang on to my winter coat with parka and the thick, lined gloves I wore “up north.” Sweaters remain on hangers.
I thought I was fully acclimatized to Florida’s winters (it’s only late December; there is more to come), but perhaps my internal thermostat is resetting to a time when I was new to the state and “cold” was only something you read about in other places.
What’s the “big deal” about “air temperature”?
When the wind blows from the east, it’s coming off the Atlantic. The water temperature in the winter normally is warmer that the air temperature, so being close to the ocean mitigates the air temperature. On the state’s west coast, the temperature easily can be 10 degrees cooler. On the other hand, when the wind is off the Gulf of Mexico, the west coast enjoys warmer temperatures. I have managed to “forget” how that works in places such as Michigan when temperatures come off the lakes, but I’m getting cold just thinking about it.
There is a lot to be said for cold weather, especially if someone enjoys ice fishing, ice skating, building snow men, and skiing on snow. (I prefer my skiing on warm water.) Anyone who enjoys “that sort of thing” is welcome to it. As for me, give me sunshine and short-sleeve shirt weather.
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