Welcome back to #TravelThursday. It’s a fun post today – probably more fun than educational or informative. I hope to get out around the region and explore some of our museums and historical attractions in the coming weeks and months so that I can write about them here.
For this post I’ll write about the local traffic and weather here in Sebring over the past few months. Let’s start with traffic. Firstly – I lived in Miami-Dade County in South Florida for 36+ years, and before that – I lived in the Washington D.C. area for 16+ years. Aside from 2 years of living in Southern England (rural Gloucestershire) in the mid-1980s – traffic here is the most reasonable (and lightest) of my entire life. Sure – we have issues. With no Interstates, Expressways, Turnpikes, etc. anywhere near here – U.S. 27 is our main thoroughfare. My neighborhood’s front entrance is directly off U.S. 27. It’s a local commercial road. It’s a regional road. It’s a major continental highway that runs over 1,350 miles from northeastern Indiana (historically Michigan) to Miami Florida.
On the local Facebook pages the “accident of the day” is posted – complete with scary photos from different angles. All of the usual keyboard warriors immediately fire up their fingers and post the same diatribes about how growth is out-of-control in Sebring, there are no police in sight until after-the-fact, people are texting on their cell phones instead of paying attention to driving so they are running stop signs, red lights, swerving, and speeding, and of course the old standby – the snowbirds visiting from up north are driving too slow and causing all of the accidents. Apparently – everyone is causing the accidents except for the ones on Facebook. (I always head straight for the comments.)
Google defines snowbird as – “a northerner who moves to a warmer southern state in the winter.”
The fact of the matter is that some of those things are true, and others are just plain nonsense. Locals (year-rounders) cause most of the accidents here – not snowbirds. Even in the summertime when the snowbird population is near zero and traffic volume is half (or less) of what it is during the wintertime – we still have the “accident of the day” posted on Facebook.
So YES – traffic on U.S. 27 can be tricky and trying at times, but it is no U.S. 1 in South Florida.
Fun Facts: The southern terminus of U.S. 27 is at U.S. 1 in Midtown Miami Florida. If there were mile marker posts along U.S. 27 – then Mile Marker 168 would appear very near the front entrance of my neighborhood.
As far as weather is concerned – we definitely participated in winter this season (again). Last season (strong El Niño) was mostly cloudy, rainy, and chilly, and this season (weak La Niña) was mostly clear, sunny, and chilly. Historical record-breaking snow fell across most of the Florida Panhandle – up to 10 inches in spots – during a rare January 20TH-21ST Gulf Coast snowstorm from Texas to Florida. Here in Sebring – we experienced an extended cold light rain in the low-to-mid-40s during the event. We were actually stuck in the 40s for 46 continuous hours ! (Tampa was stuck in the 40s for 70 hours in a row !)
Our lowest average high temperature of the entire year is slightly above 70°F (21°C), and our lowest average low temperature of the entire year is slightly above 50°F (10°C). So – a below-average (cool) day is a high below 70° and / or a low below 50°. We’ve experienced 41 cool days so far this winter (since the latter part of November). That’s 19 days when we didn’t reach 70°F, and 39 nights when we dropped below 50°F. (Last winter season we experienced 38 nights below 50°F, so we’ve already surpassed that number.)
Weather statistics are courtesy of the National Weather Service for Sebring Regional Airport (adjacent to Sebring International Raceway) – which sits at an unusual location and elevation in that it is off of the Lake Wales Ridge. It is anywhere from 60 to 120 feet below the elevation of where most of the people live here in the local area. As a result – the airport is occasionally warmer than most of the area, or cooler than most of the area depending on local weather conditions at the time.
Later today – I’m headed a couple of miles up the road to the Avon Park campus of South Florida State College to enjoy a music concert. I also plan to check out the adjacent Museum of Florida Art And Culture. I’ll write about it – next #TravelThursday. Let’s keep traveling together.
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