Rain and crazy thought patterns

Wow. We have been praying for rain. We didn’t ask to be deluged.

A “typical” Florida summer weather pattern consists of sunny hot days with rain showers or thunderstorms most afternoons. For the past several years, the weather pattern hasn’t been “typical.” We’ve had extremely dry summers which have brought us wildfires and water-rationing. We’ve been in a drought for the past three years that have aquifer levels extremely low and car-washing and lawn-watering have been banned.

This week, we’ve had a crazy weather pattern with lots of thunderstorms and rain!  In fact, Monday’s “official” measure was 4.65 inches of rainfall.  On Tuesday, it was 3.01 inches.  It has already been raining this morning and the forecast is a 90% chance of strong storms this afternoon and evening.  We’re also being told that we may have a typical summer weather pattern this year…yeehaw!

Nearly 8 inches of rain this week.  I’m not exactly sure how many feet above sea level we are (hope it’s feet and not inches!).  According to the flood maps, we are not in a flood zone…barely.

That got me to wondering about sea level.  How is it determined?  Is it figured at high tide or low tide or somewhere in between?  How many inches of rainfall – and how quickly – would it take to wash us away?  (I really shouldn’t be allowed to think in the wee hours of the morning just before the alarm goes off.)

I was going to pose the sea level question to Jill, our faithful and extremely knowledgeable research librarian, but I decided to google it and see what I could find.  Jill, feel free to elaborate on any of this if you’d like!

This question was posed in the pages of the Farmer’s Almanac.  The explanation:

Sea level is determined halfway between high tide and low tide, as measured by a tide gauge. It is a relative, rather than an absolute, measurement and varies from ocean to ocean. It even varies from coast to coast on the same ocean. Sediment deposits at the mouths of rivers, natural and manmade erosion, and engineering projects can affect relative local sea level. Continental drift and global warming also may be factors. Sea level is the standard used to determine local land elevations and geographic features. Mean sea level is the average height of all the oceans and is used to determine the relative height of geographic features worldwide. According to most estimates, mean sea level has risen about four to eight inches over the past hundred years.

Okay.  I still don’t know the answer to my question about how much rainfall over what period of time it would take to wash my house out into the Gulf, but Doc assures me that I shouldn’t worry about it.  For now.  Unless we have a hurricane bearing down on us with storm surge warnings for our area.    Sheesh.

Sounds to me like a great reason to visit Aiden.  Perhaps for an extended period of time.