Since the rain isn’t yet obliging (this week has been mostly dry), we have to fall back on a secondary indicator that the wet season is here:
i.e., Florida’s Giant Lubber Grasshoppers!
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| Lubbers seem more reliable than the clouds |
The first appeared in early May as little black bugs, cute things really, only to by the start of June to have grown into silent but somewhat intimidating and oversized creatures that tourists are deathly afraid to pick up.
Not to worry, they won’t hurt a soul,
Although they may put a dent in your garden.
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| Dry seasons can extend into June when the rains are late |
At some point June will finally get going.
On average it’s our highest rainfall month.
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| Rain-dar image for the month of May Courtesy of SFWMD |
Until then we’ll have to fall back on the reliable Lubbers (and the resurgent mosquitoes) as the only biological signal that the wet season is here.
The image above displays a radar-derived image of the spread of rainfall for the month of May. Basically, if you mix all those pixilated colors together into a single unified stew, it simplifies into the single number: 2.3 inches for the month of May (as bar graphed it the rain chart below.)
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| Lubbers are good at hanging on |
As you can see, south Florida is a pretty big area to pull a single number from.
I wonder what the Florida wide distribution of those Lubbers looks like?
