PENNEY FARMS \u2013\u00a0Of all the tools at Mike Buresh\u2019s disposal,\u00a0it became clear his most effective was common sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The acclaimed\u00a0Action News Jax\u00a0meteorologist\u00a0captivated the Rotary Club of Green Cove Springs Monday\u00a0afternoon by talking about the weather.\u00a0He was informative, unpretentious and\u00a0fascinating, making something as innocuous as the weather\u00a0interesting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 2024 Federal Alliance for Safe Homes National Weather Person of the Year\u00a0started by\u00a0quizzing\u00a0club members on the record low\u00a0and high\u00a0temperatures for Jacksonville. The answers: seven and 104 degrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA\u00a0lot of people are surprised when it’s 104 because most people think it would be hotter,\u201d Buresh said.\u00a0\u201cIt’s Florida, right?\u00a0Well, keep in mind we get that sea breeze just about every day during the summer and that keeps it a little bit more tolerable, if you want to call it that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Buresh\u00a0isn\u2019t swayed by modern trends or social media. He prefers studying history\u00a0and he refuses to over\u2014or underreact\u2014to approaching systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He reminded everyone that understanding hurricanes will never be an exact science.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHurricane season, are we overdue? And by that, I mean a direct hit (on the Northeast coast),\u201d Buresh asked. \u201cJacksonville and Northeastern Florida, we are lucky in that we’re one of the areas in Florida, oh, knock on wood, that doesn’t typically get a direct hit from a significant hurricane. Now, having said that, we’ve had many storms in just the last 20 years that have done plenty of damage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cClay County will always remember Hurricane Irma, of course, as it moved up western Florida with tremendous flooding and very heavy rain.\u00a0And we saw flooding in parts of Clay County, water in places that there was never flooding before.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Buresh said statistics show the average number of hurricanes have increased since the 1960s, partially because technology is better at collecting data.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the\u00a0water temperature is favorable in the Pacific for an\u00a0El Ni\u00f1o\u00a0this summer. An El Ni\u00f1o\u00a0forms in unusually warm surface\u00a0temperatures\u00a0and moves across the country\u00a0to create\u00a0unusual weather in the South. It generally triggers a greater risk for an\u00a0increased number of hurricanes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 1992 there was an\u00a0El Ni\u00f1o,\u201d Buresh said. \u201cAlso,\u00a0there was\u00a0Hurricane Andrew\u00a0in\u00a0South Florida, so\u00a0be careful with that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Buresh has some pet peeves, like talking about\u00a0\u201cnormal\u201d temperatures\u00a0or those who say the recent cold snap proves there is no global\u00a0warming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI say we need to get rid of \u2018normal\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no normal. There never has been, never will be. Nobody in this room is normal. We’re all very different, right? You get normal mathematically by taking the number of people or the number of subjects or applications and then dividing it by that number, that becomes your average.\u00a0It’s an average, but it isn’t normal per se, and\u00a0normal weather is just baloney.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Buresh said the oceans are indeed getting warmer, he said there isn\u2019t any real evidence that sea levels are rising in Florida. He also\u00a0said Earth is in perpetual flux, from hot and cold, wet and dry.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust remember, weather is what you get, climate is what you expect \u2013 two very different things,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, of course, we had, for lack of a better term, fools last week saying, \u2018Oh, it’s a snowstorm, the planet can’t be warming.’ Last week was weather. The last 20 years are climate.\u00a0The last week was just a weather day. This is like today’s sunny day. It’s just the weather today.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also said weather is always changing. In fact, it\u2019s up to mankind to adapt to the ebbs and flows of weather, not for humans to attempt to control\u00a0Mother Nature.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why weather is always going to be like wild, crazy, extreme, changeable, all that,\u201d Buresh said. \u201cThe day that doesn\u2019t happen is when [we] cease to exist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHere\u2019s the thing: it\u2019s going to change on the drop of a dime. Change quickly, very suddenly, and it\u2019s up to us to be prepared. Mitigation is what we really should talk about when we talk about weather and dealing with it and how we can change it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Should we build on the ocean?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe not,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are things that we can do better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also emphasized the importance for residents to use their common sense as a storm approaches. Don\u2019t wait until\u00a0it\u2019s too late if you need to evacuate. Put a\u00a0coin\u00a0on top of a cup of frozen water in the freezer if you\u2019re going to be gone. When you return, if the penny is on the bottom, that means the power was off, the water thawed and\u00a0refroze and everything in the freezer needs to be tossed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Buresh then wanted everyone to remember one thing:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWeather is what you get.\u201d<\/p>\n
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