Hurricane Harbor

A writer and a tropical muse. A funky Lubavitcher who enjoys watching the weather, hurricanes, listening to music while enjoying life with a sense of humor and trying to make sense of it all!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Tons of Tropical Rain in South Florida Today


Cloudy, soupy mess in Miami today as bands of rain keep rotating in, moving onshore and very visible on the radar. Makes you remember that the Hurricane Season is not that far away. The satellite imagery shows the illusion of a storm or system there, yet according to the NWS it's just a lot of rain...

In actuality it's one long, plume of moisture that is moving up from the Caribbean and it has been for days. More so, it's going to get worse over the next few days as a low may develop over the area.

Just a lingering frontal boundary of some sort...  what is most interesting is that if the models verify the low travels NW into the Gulf of Mexico.

Funny, that sounds like late May and a prelude to an early Hurricane Season not a remnant of a low on a cold front moving across the State (like the last one last week) towards the Carolinas.

Something to think on this morning as you stare out your hotel room across Biscayne Bay towards the Atlantic Ocean beyond the narrow strip of land we call "The Beach" that others call "Miami Beach" and you wonder where the sunshine went in the Sunshine State.

I'd say the May Monsoons are a bit early this year and I'd stick my neck out and add that the Hurricane Season will be early too!

Look at a post I posted in LATE May of 2009, not to be repetitious here but... this is a month early compared to 2009. Wild storms though that year...

http://hurricaneharbor.blogspot.com/2009/05/miami-monsoons-loop-current.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Miami

Miami Monsoons are wild things to behold. This mornings rain seems more like a weak, tropical disturbance that is wandering it's way across the State waiting to find some direction. Not the typical late afternoon thunderstorms.

Time's gonna tell on this one but that is one heck of a plume of tropical moisture coming this way...

http://www.intellicast.com/Storm/Hurricane/AtlanticSatellite.aspx?animate=true

http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/mimic-tpw/natl/anim/latest72hrs.gif

You can watch the "low" trying to form, hanging in there sort of centered over Marathon and the Keys twisting about...storms forming and throbbing their way across the Keys, the Miami Area and a sort of tortured day for the Naples area if you wanted to do anything but watch the rain fall.

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/watl/flash-wv.html

I can almost hear Alberto whispering in the wind "me first, me first" waiting for his chance to enter Stage Right and move his way across the tropical stage.

Besos Bobbi

Ps if you are in the South Florida area today, it's a good day to stay inside or find a good covered balcony and read a good book. Or try a Mall, Barnes and Noble, a Movie maybe...There are Rip Currents Warning at the Beach, a Flood Watch and a Hazardous Weather Outlook and the Hurricane Season hasn't even yet begun... even though Alberto is whispering in the wind "me first, me first"



Sunday, April 22, 2012

Rain, Wind, Snow -- April 2012

File:Dennis-7-10-05-1915z.jpg

No, that's not today's rain storm but Hurricane Dennis from 2005. Keep reading, you'll understand why I posted it here now while I listen to the rain falling in April of 2012. Beautiful picture isn't it?

It's a very cold, rainy night where I am and yet despite the cold it's heaven listening to the rain falling, making sounds and rhythms which remind me of Busby Berkeley dance scenes and the sound of rain on a hot tin roof far away in Key West...

Know what's annoying? News programs that show a taped forecast for the Sunday shows that are poorly done with bad info.  While watching the news it says the "rain will shortly be clearing out" yet the satellite imagery clearly shows rain all the way two states to the South that will be training in all night. I'm not sure how in a day and age when you can do a webcast on the iPhone or any computer device in real time....yet they still show Sunday Weather on most stations taped earlier in the day or worse the night before. Seriously....

An amazing storm system has taken hold of the Eastern half of the country and a beautiful low formed down in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday and dipped down, crossed Florida and swirled it's way north along the Northeast Coast dragging with it snow across most of Hurricane Country and sending large amounts of snow across parts of Pennsylvania, New England, New York in what is now a sequel to the Snowtober  event back in October. Like bookends, an early winter system and a late winter system races across the land yet there wasn't much to write home about in between. Go figure.

The Weather Channel said last night this pattern is similar to 2005.

One of many articles about the quote by the NWS on this pattern being similar to the one in 2005.

http://blogs.wivb.com/category/weather-watch-4/

Personally, I'm looking at the Atlantic today and surprised at what I see...


This image isn't 2005, nor is it 2006, it's today's image of the Atlantic. Oddly, there are storms over Africa and a very low ITCZ that is way too active for this time of the year. The frontal system sprawled across the Eastern Coast of the US is also visible.

That's a very active ITCZ for April.... even late April.

Very soon all the Weather Gurus will be posting their thoughts and guesstimates on how active this year will be.

My early guess is that this will be a tricky forecast and that we will have weather extremes throughout the first few months of the Hurricane Season. Late fronts that will either sweep through or go poof, regardless of how mild the winter was previously. Hot spells that are interspersed with cool air flowing.  Frontal boundaries stretched down into the Gulf of Mexico could set up a pattern for hits along the panhandle of Florida and points to the West early in the season.

I keep picturing this last low and seeing images of Dennis. Something about this sudden low that formed, dipped and zoomed up reminded me of Dennis... maybe I'm just desperate for tropical weather but suddenly other years and other images came to mind..

File:121893main Dennis.A2005190.1845-516px.jpg


And, then there was Arlene..............early storm that formed down in the Caribbean and worked it's way north. Remember, there was already a system down there a while back that freakishly got coverage for it's oddness and timing though nothing panned out... back in February.

File:Arlene 11 june 2005 1645Z.jpg


Notice the pattern?



Notice the storms coming off of Columbia and the moisture being pulled north... this is very unscientific but hey... it's who I am and I am good at seeing patterns.

http://www.intellicast.com/Storm/Hurricane/CaribbeanSatellite.aspx?animate=true

Watch the loop that shows the tropical moisture that came up from the deep Caribbean and got caught up in the low that formed in the Gulf and got scooped up fast and sent north packing. In another month or so such a system would linger longer.

http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/mimic-tpw/natl/anim/latest72hrs.gif

Here's another thing I worry on.... the hail in Texas last week, crazy hail.... wild rainstorms.

1900 also had wild weather but they blamed it on a comet. No comet like that this year...


April 5–8, 1900: Rainstorm. This storm began in two centers, over Val Verde County on the Rio Grande, and over Swisher County on the High Plains, and converged in the vicinity of Travis County, causing disastrous floods in the Colorado, Brazos and Guadalupe rivers. McDonald Dam on the Colorado River at Austin crumbled suddenly. A wall of water swept through the city taking at least 23 lives. Damage was estimated at $1.25 million.
       Sept. 8–9, 1900: Hurricane. Galveston. The Great Galveston Storm was the worst natural disaster in U.S. history in terms of human life. Loss of life at Galveston has been estimated at 6,000 to 8,000, but the exact number has never been determined. The island was completely inundated; not a single structure escaped damage. Most of the loss of life was due to drowning by storm tides that reached 15 feet or more. The anemometer blew away when the wind reached 100 mph at 6:15 p.m. on the 8th. Wind reached an estimated maximum velocity of 120 mph between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. Property damage has been estimated at $30 million to $40 million.



Isaac Cline had to go and record the hail storm and flooding a few months prior to the hurricane season that claimed the lives of so many of the citizens of Galveston... it had been a strange and quirky year.

Got to be careful and respect the weather in strange quirky years. 2012 is one of such years.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-video/breaking-weather-snow-on-the-way/1670024770

Keep watching....

Musing on the weather...because that's what I do ;)

Besos Bobbi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmCpOKtN8ME

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Far Atlantic Invest




Big Wide View:



Up close and personal:


Officially Invest 91L...far out in the Atlantic, going nowhere but stirring up the scenery and the powers that be have given it designation. Actually, most of the Atlantic seems to be the Invest. More extra-tropical than tropical but it's officially being watched.

Basically, that means we are allowed to talk on it, run some models and kick off the season a little bit early whispering speculative, sweet nothings into each other's ears...

Keep watching.


Models show it looping about in the far Atlantic.


Sort of looks a bit like Alfred Hitchcock doesn't it?

Watch its loop over the last few days:


Seriously, looks like it takes up half the Atlantic...

Keep watching.....

Besos Bobbi...watching the tropics even in April.... (told you we were getting closer...)


Monday, April 16, 2012

Getting Closer . . .


You know the Hurricane Season is getting closer when my mind subconsciously hears "the storms coming off of Africa" while listening to the morning round up on TWC.

She said, "the storms coming off of Alabama" . . .

I turned, looked and felt really silly and then I giggled.

It's normal really when you consider the signs of summer passed us by a few weeks ago and it feels more like July than the middle of April. I heard a cricket last night...

Mind you, the middle of April means that the EPAC Hurricane Season is a month away as it begins on May 15th every year, a mere two weeks before the Atlantic Hurricane Season.

I know if you are an Atlantic Basin Babe that's like talking to a Southeast Conference girl about UCLA and Colorado. Seriously?

But, it is a sign in the tropics when things start bubbling off the west coast of Panama that things will be heating up on our side of the basin soon.

On a personal note, Passover has passed on. The house is semi-back together, my kids have hit the road and are either home or in travel mode today. It's quiet here. Very green, still a bit cool this morning but aiming for 84 degrees and the AC will be humming along with the humming birds.

Time to start freshening up my links to the Hurricane World beyond my circle of friends who talk hurricanes 24/7 all year round.

Updating new websites, watching wannabe websites that will show up very soon and checking out Apps on my various handheld toys.

Time for you to start thinking on your hurricane plans for the 2012 season and I would love to get some feedback on what you most enjoy.

A trip to the Outer Banks would be nice, before I head south back to Miami. Or some bank, financial or otherwise :) Myrtle Beach is usually my beach of choice round these parts. Let's see what the weather looks like later this week.

Hugs and kisses and hurricane thoughts as we move closer and closer to the Hurricane Season, even if we are entranced by the footage of the Twisters moving across Oklahoma.

In the world of weather weenies.... first comes Twister Season, then comes Hurricane Season. Chasers like to take turns as they chase the storms.

Besos Bobbi

Ps :) music link to enjoy

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Seaweed, Strawberries and the Hurricane Season








Is there a connection? Or is it just that time of year?

Every year around this time someone tries to connect the strawberry season, seaweed season or how many tourists there are on Lincoln Road to how busy the Hurricane Season will be in South Florida.

I kid you not.

Any real Miami kid will connect the number of times anything happens to what kind of hurricane season we might have....

I immediately played on Google and came up with the following.

"looks like seaweed will be bad this year ? [Archive] - 2CoolFishing
2coolfishing.com › 2CoolFishing › TTMB
21 posts - 19 authors - May 10, 2011
[Archive] looks like seaweed will be bad this year ? ... someone told me that this means it will be a bad hurricane season because the churning"

Looks like . . . a lot of people think a like round these parts.

In 2006 people were worrying about the seaweed on beaches in Florida . . . it ended up being a semi-slow year for Florida, a slow year in general. Nothing to write home about, although I did go to the beach with my son when Ernesto played mind games with Miami.



To be honest, one of my first memories of Crandon Park was that it ALWAYS had tons of seaweed, more than any other beach and yet it shows up all the time in Top Ten Beautiful Beaches online.

Note this article was published by the Orlando paper about the Ft. Lauderdale beaches... perhaps hoping bored Disney goers will stay up there and not drive down to the South Florida beaches.. you never know, the tourist industry games are worse than Hunger Games.


Supposedly it has to do with an overgrowth of seaweed in the Sargasso Seed, that place that gave us Atlantis and eels and the Bermuda Triangle.

Something about immobile sea currents:


But, the tourists are having fun and enjoying the weather. My kids have not complained about anything except getting too much sun and looking for what to put on a sunburn. My kids in Miami who are celebrating Passover and the Beach. My kids in North Carolina are picking strawberries and looking for a petting zoo today, or a carousel or maybe a good Mall. A bit cold in NC to go to the beach and no one wants to drive that far :( I did the strawberry farm yesterday, am cooking Italian food for tonight and listening to Sting while I lie in bed and watch the TWC and write this blog.

Okay, some people pick strawberries and others take pictures of them. Almost everywhere I have lived they have grown strawberries. We have strawberries in our salad this Pesach, strawberry smoothies and strawberry slush. Considering my history with strawberries I cannot believe I went along. Then again... was a great photo op.




However, down on South Beach Schwarzenegger Jr is out using seaweed like a Frisbee tossing it around with his friends who don't seem to mind the slimy, invaders from the Sargasso Sea.




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2120074/Patrick-Schwarzenegger-shows-toned-body-Miami-Beach-just-weeks-ski-accident.html

If you are up in Orlando today, like my best friend who is far away and busy with her family this Passover...and you are afraid of Seaweed.... note the smoke from the forest fires up there is intense according to TWC which I am sure she is watching. Central Florida is dealing with a new spate of forest fires that will not go out and keep lingering across the region due to dry conditions. Dare I suggest that an early Hurricane Season with some nice weak, wet Tropical Storms traveling across Central Florida might just finally put those fires out??


Anywhere you go this April you will have to deal with some sort of weather. Oklahoma had crazy hail the other day, the size of baseballs out near Woodward. Colorado may have snow next week. Fires in Florida and Staten Island, NY. Seaweed on the beach in 85 degree weather in Miami seems the lesser of two evils. Here in North Carolina... it's windy, really windy. Cold and windy.... but very sunny. All the Azalea blossoms are struggling to hold their ground as they dance wildly in the freezing, strong breeze. The Dogwoods lost that battle :( and am burning a lemon, tangerine candle while I put together tonight's Italian theme menu. Lots of fresh eggplants from the Farmers Market sauteed in olive oil over Spaghetti Squash and other vegetarian delights while we take a break from Brisket and Turkey dishes.

Ironically, while I was out at the Strawberry farm yesterday the guy was talking about the early growing season....which of course... being in Hurricane Country up here... he was actually wondering if that was a sign of an early Hurricane Season. Yup, all along the Hurricane Coast everyone is beginning to think on Hurricanes.

And, as the nice guy told me yesterday, it really doesn't depend on when the strawberries begin their season it's about what happens in May.... just like the hurricane season.

Until May we are all really just playing meteorological mind games with Hurricane Season.

Besos Bobbi ;)