Which Way’s the Wind Blowin?

I think it’s interesting how the weather at my house has changed since the power plant went in, and I’m amazed at how many people have no idea there’s a power plant in Loxahatchee.

A few years ago, I noticed that a good number of storms rolling through the area would go around our house, and I equated it with the new power plant that went up a half a mile from us. When I mentioned it to my husband though, he looked at me funny like he wasn’t so sure about this. But I kept watching storms on the radar break apart once they reached the power plant, and as they continued north, they remained separated over our house.

This is a picture of the radar taken with my iPhone. The pink box is where the power plant is and the circle is where our house is. Time after time, storms coming from the south either break apart, storming to our east and west, or the whole thing just goes around us, to the east or to the west. Don’t get me wrong – this doesn’t happen every single time – but it happens enough to where it is certainly noticeable.

Eventually, Dave agreed that the power plant does affect our weather, and when a storm approaches and people are over, he delights in telling them to watch how the storm will break apart and go around us. And most of the time, it does. We’ve gotten pretty good at being able to tell which storms are likely to go around and which ones might bless/curse us (depending on the season) with some rain.

So for those of you who exclaimed, “There’s a power plant in Loxahatchee? Where?” Here’s a link to a FPL site that will tell you more about it.

http://www.fpl.com/environment/plant/west_county.shtml

Here’s a picture of the smoke it was emitting yesterday on my way home. My house is at the end of this road, which is only in total a half-mile long, and the power plant, by way the bird flies, is a shorter distance than this.

Being way out here also used to mean unreliable electricity. It went out all the time for no apparent reason and stayed out for hours. But ever since this power plant went in, we’ve hardly had a fluctuation. This alone makes me a big fan. HOWEVER, in hindsight, I can probably thank a lot of those power outages for more time spent with the kids. Playing board games, coloring, drawing, making up games, and playing in the pool (because it didn’t have to be storming for the power to go out!) happened more often, I’m sure, due to our power issues. But, as in most cases, timing is everything. The kids are now grown, with lives of their own, and today I’m thankful that after 15 years of spotty electricity, we’re finally on the grid for lasting power.