Whenever St. Augustine holds an event to honor its founder, Pedro Menendez, the ghost of Jean Ribault pisses on the party usually via bad weather. It has happened so often that people have started to expect it.
Ribault established a settlement at the mouth of the St. Johns River in Spanish Florida in 1562. Three years later Menendez arrived, established St. Augustine, and then destroyed the French settlement. Ribault and over 300 Frenchmen were shipwrecked on their way to attack the Spanish. When Menendez located them he proceeded to execute them on a deserted beach at the southern tip of Anastasia Island. The location still has the name Matanzas, Spanish for massacre.
So it is understandable that Ribault would not care for celebrations honoring Menendez or his long-lived settlement.
There are generally two events a year: one the last weekend in February in honor of Pedro’s birth anniversary, and the other in September to commemorate the founding of the city.
Some years in February it has rained continuously the entire weekend, or the wind has come out of the northeast, off the ocean and the temperature dropped to a near freezing wind chill level.
In September there has never been frozen wind, but there has often been rain, sometimes several days of a tropical system and sometimes just enough to make outdoor events unpleasant. (The radar image above is from September 3, 2005, the day of numerous outdoor ceremonies. Note the rain only over St. Augustine.)
Several years ago as I drove the Spanish Consul General to the airport after one dreary and wet and cold February weekend filled with Menendez related activities, the diplomat commented that each year during his visit for these events the weather was awful. I shared with him my belief in Ribault’s Revenge. He laughed and said perhaps there was some truth to the story. Later he told me he had included my theory in his official report of the visit to the state department in Madrid. Wonder how long it has been since the name of Ribault was inscribed on an official diplomatic document in Madrid? Perhaps the ghost found that exceptionally pleasing.