We are entering a new year, 2023. This year is sure to bring unexpected events. In the past few years, we have seen lockdowns, a pandemic, and political upheaval. This is not an election year, so some of this political fervor may die down.
In 2020 and 2021, we had the COVID-19 Pandemic. In 2022 as much of the population had either developed natural immunity or been vaccinated, the talk turned to a tripledemic which was COVID-19, Flu, and RSV. In 2023 we will not have mask mandates or lockdowns in Hernando. The public’s “-demic” fatigue will result in no major local countermeasures to illnesses this year.
The housing market in Hernando cooled off slightly last year. This year we expect much of the same. The housing market numbers will remain steady or have a slight decline. The economy is struggling, and in this uncertain time, we do not expect major development to be undertaken.
Once again, we predict Hernando will get a club store or high-end grocery store. We predicted that this year Costco, Whole Foods, Fresh Market, or Trader Joe’s will announce that they are opening in Hernando County. We have made this prediction for a number of years, and it lowers our correct prediction percentage since it does not work out. However, we would like one of these stores and therefore will keep making this prediction. We are, in sports parlance, taking one for the team. We are hoping that someone reading this article has the ability to make this happen and helps us out.
It has been raining more than usual in Hernando for the past several years. We predict that this year will have less rainfall than last year.
Rainfall has decreased since 2019, but this last year saw a slight uptick in rainfall. The last four years’ rainfall, according to SWFWMD, was 64.90 inches in 2019, 57.01 inches in 2020, 47.60 inches in 2021, and 55.88 inches in 2022. We predict that the downward trend will continue even though there was a slight uptick in 2022.
We predict that the Hernando Sun will gain a Tampa or Tallahassee correspondent next year. This is because our eldest daughter is planning to attend either FSU or USF. We were only 50/50 last year, so this prediction should help our stats this year.
We predict that with the newly elected officials, there will be at least one change of appointed leadership. We are predicting that there will be a new Superintendent, City Manager, or County Manager in the coming year.
Check back at the end of the year to see how our predictions turned out. This year we are hoping to do better than the 50/50 of last year. If you use these predictions for betting purposes, we would appreciate a cut of the winnings.
