Sept 22: Falling Ahead

On Facebook this morning, one of my 1,024 dearest personal friends posted something interesting. Carolyn wrote: "Seriously, the only thing fall does for South FL is allow us to begin to think about not running the air conditioner so much, and open a sliding glass door." Well, Carolyn, I hate to disagree with any of my wonderful Facebook buds. But I beg to differ. Here in the northern hemisphere, autumn officially begins tomorrow. And contrary to popular opinion, fall does do something for South FL. I can already see it and feel it in the air. We've passed the high point of heat and humidity for the year and we're gliding merrily down the other side toward cooler weather. I've been sitting on my patio without turning on the ceiling fan for the past few days, for example - the ocean breeze has something fresh in it now.

I sat outside this morning and breathed in that wind deeply, just to savor the feeling. If I did that in mid-July I'd likely choke on the humid air. As I'd written a couple months ago, I actually enjoyed the moist summer heat this year. But it's nice to see a change coming.

In South Florida, autumn means many things. The skies begin to turn much clearer, much bluer. As the heat index goes down, the breezes pick up. Of course, the days grow shorter and the nights longer - something that helps give our climate a more autumnal feel, I think. Nature's changes here are more subtle than up north, where fall descends dramatically. I was just in Chicago for a few days. They're having an early autumn so some leaves already had turned color and daytime highs required long-sleeved shirts, sometimes a jacket too. My trip there served as a good contrast to fall in South Florida. In this southern latitude, autumn is less an ending than a beginning. It is the promise of those perfect comfortable weeks just ahead. And we start to see the return of the license plates as well, the snowbirds from New York and Quebec and Pennsylvania and Michigan and everywhere else. There's an excitement to it all somehow. This weekend, I'll dig out my fall decorations and put up small orange lights and my electric pumpkin, scarecrows and gourds. That always helps me get into the seasonal spirit. Whether some of my Facebook friends know it or not, autumn has arrived in South Florida. It may not include orange and gold leaves but it will bring us something else: a spectacular winter.