I lived in South Florida for six years, so I know the annual January influx of the snowbirds well, but yesterday I unwittingly experienced the migration first hand on I-75. Like everyone else who comes to Florida in the winter I waited till after the holidays and started driving down in early January. There I was on Interstate midway down the peninsula in stop and go traffic at times. The rest stops had cars backed up onto the off-ramp waiting for a parking spot and I had to stand in lines to use the facilities. It was hard to believe I was in the middle of nowhere in a long traffic jams with other salt stained cars with licenses plates from New York, Ohio and Minnesota.
In winter months Florida bursts at the seams with people in search of warm sunny weather, packing restaurants and creating non stop traffic jams and using a lot of water. All during the dry winter season when very little rain falls to replenish the aquifers that provides this water. South Florida’s water supply is where I’m sitting right now, the Everglades. That traffic I was in today really illustrates the wintertime demand put on the water of the Everglades.
