It's a Red Flag Day

My partner regularly scans the NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration) website to see where storms are. This has become a necessity since the power goes out on a regular basis in our area which means one's computer shuts down. . .improperly. She now scans the site, sees where the line of storms is located, and continues working until the storms encroach our area, after which, the computers are shut down...properly. The other day, she was perusing the NOAA website, noting where the latest storm line was in relation to our house, when she noticed that our area was colored red. What does that mean? It wasn't a tornado warning box, so what was this? She looked it up. It was a Red Flag warning. Red Flag warning??? It warned us, in northern Florida, that our humidity would drop below 35 percent and that the danger of fires would increase. Thirty-five percent. She relayed this story with a chuckle in her voice knowing I would find the humor in this. I had lived in southern Arizona for 9 years, and in New Mexico for 3. Humidity of 35 percent is a very humid day in the desert, it practically rains. It's a nice "dry" day here. For kicks, I wanted to see if the desert Southwest was emblazoned with red highlights. It wasn't. Perhaps they color it when humidity rises above 25 percent. They could call it a Blue Flag day, warning locals that it will be sticky, and that they should stay inside.

Humidity below 35 percent in Florida. I breathe a sigh of joy; perhaps the mold will not grow...as much today, and my clothes on the line will take less than 10 hours to dry.