Confirming Info

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

Sorry for the lack of blog articles.  I joined the local gym and started working out two hours per day.  That robs me of a lot of energy.  I also haven't adjusted my daily routine to compensate yet.

I wrote a few things recently that should be subject to verification.  Here it is.

Water Levels:  I wrote that the depths on the bay side of the keys seemed to be higher than normal.  I also wrote that the low tides in Boot Key seemed to vary substantially from year to year.  I found NOAA data specific to this location that validates both.

This is the very long term trend.  
I am most interested in the variations which seem to be about 6 inches

There is a seasonal variation here that I wasn't aware of.  
Why it varies, I don't know. 

The long term wiggles are very visible here..

I made a custom plot of low tides only.
0.0 is the average over 3 years.

It is true.  The winter of 2011, the low tides were nearly a foot lower than now.  Why should this be?  The NOAA site hints that it may be related to the famous El Niño oscillation in the Pacific.

Thinning of the blood: I've always used this expression thinking that it was folklore.  When you spend times in warm climates, your "blood gets thinned" meaning you adapt.   Now I learned that there is a basis in fact.  The hypothalamus regulates the body's thermostat, and it adapts to your local climate.  It goes under the very fancy name of hypothalamus adaptive thermogenesis.  Therefore, while your blood does not thin literally, it does figuratively.