Friday is the last day of Severe Weather Awareness Week in Florida, and to end this week, we will be talking about temperature extremes and wildfires.
As most of you know — and if you don’t, that’s okay — Florida is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Because of all of this water around us, we have a lot of tropical moisture in and around Florida.
Hot temperatures when combined with high humidity can cause some problems for us if we don’t take care of ourselves.
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When you take a look at the correlation between hot temperatures and high humidity, you’ll learn that those factors together make our human bodies feel a lot hotter than it actually is, temperature-wise, outside. This is all because of the increased amount of moisture in the air which prevents our human bodies from being able to cool themselves off by sweating.
I did a little research, and I found that on June 29, 1931, we hit the hottest Florida temperature on record which was 109 °F.
Wildfire season in Florida is essentially all year long. However, the peak of the season though goes from January to mid-June.
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Usually in a year for Florida, over 3,000 fires burn nearly 163,500 acres of land.
Most fires are caused by us, the people. Arson is a leading cause, as are uncontrolled burns.
Winds can pick up embers and stray them into a fire. Also, smokers have a responsibility. Make sure to put the butts out in the proper place.