I grew up in North Florida, near the Georgia border.

When I was a kid – 25 years ago – winters weren’t brutally cold or anything like that, but it always got cold enough to cause all of the plants to go brown and dormant (except evergreens, of course). In other words, I never saw a flower between and including November and February.

I live in Florida once again as an adult, and we sometimes return to the north of the state to visit the beautiful natural sights in the area.

Now, it’s different. I am able to easily find blooming flowers, sometimes in great quantity, throughout the winter. In addition and because of the availability of flowers, we also see butterflies all year long now in North Florida.

When I was a kid the last butterflies were usually gone by October, and didn’t return in number until April. I never, ever saw a butterfly in December there; now I see them commonly.

I realize it’s anecdotal, but I was a keen observer of nature when I was a kid. I spent most of nearly every day  outside, and was never that big into computer games or the like. (I played them when it was too hot or rainy or cold to be outside, but otherwise I was usually outdoors.)

Riding on the school bus, I’d literally count every flower or animal I saw on the way to school – so yep, pretty fucking sure I know what I am talking about here, climate change deniers.

So I don’t think it’s just my misperception.

North Florida is an ecotone, anyway – it’s the last stand of the northern forests as they shade into the more subtropical climate region that is most of Florida. It’s not surprising that such an area has been more noticeably altered by climate change.

But when I can notice such a large change in my lifetime, that’s a sign. A sign that it’s probably going to be worse than even our models predict.