Time to dust off the Spiderman kite and take to the skies, it’s windy in Southwest Florida.
The National Weather Service recorded gusts as high as 36 miles per hour at Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers on the morning of April 21.
“We had a gust down there early of 36 miles per hour at RSW,” said Christianne Pearce, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Ruskin, the office that covers the Fort Myers-Cape Coral area.
That’s just 3 miles per hour shy of tropical storm force winds, which start at 39 miles per hour.
Most of the Gulf Coast was under a red flag advisory April 21 due to drought conditions, air moisture and high winds.
Boating conditions have also been risky as seas have occasionally reached 5 feet on the open Gulf, NWS says.
Severe and extreme drought has persisted over much of Florida for the past several months, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
Windy conditions are typical in March and April as the region transitions from the cooler, drier winter months to the muggy, rainy summer and fall.
The winds come during the middle of a one of the most active wildfire seasons Florida has seen in a decade.
Fire is natural, needed in Florida
Fire is a natural part of Florida’s ecology, and the plants and animals here evolved with fire as regular occurrence.
Historical accounts suggest fires here burned for up to a year at a time, slowly sweeping across the dry, scrubby terrain.
Some plants in Florida will not release seeds until a fire occurs, making flames a necessary part of the natural system.
“It’s definitely dry and wind,” Pearce said. “And that’s what fires like.”
Conditions are expected to return to more average winds of 5 to 10 miles per hour by Thursday, an NWS forecast says.
Chad Gillis is an environment reporter and can be reached by email at cgillis@news-press.com.
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Windy days not good for dangerous drought conditions across Florida
Reporting by Chad Gillis, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
