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!
Monday, February 29, 2016
Winter Storm VS Sunshine in Florida? Need a Floriday? Winter Almost Over... But Another Storm Coming... Warm in Florida
Winter is not over.
It sure feels like it in NC but no it's not over.
Neither is the Severe Weather that feels like Spring Storms.
It's a clash of systems later this week across the US.
Watch how Winter descends upon the land again.
Winter is on it's way out.
That's a for sure.
But how many more hits of Winter will we get .....
.....before we move into Spring?
Let me explain one basic truth in weather.
If you want summer all year long...
Move to Miami.
And you won't see this warning on your phone ever.
It will be Floridays... winter, summer, spring or fall.
This is what you will be looking at... blue views.
Updated! Next Storm Forming. Weather Hazards Between Winter & Spring. Blackbirds, High Heels and Travel Weather
There's a big black bird in the tall pine tree behind my house. Actually, there is a family of them I believe. Winter allows you to see deeper into the forest than the rest of the year. The maples and elms are naked, just tall pines weaving back and forth in the wind. And every once in a while this big bird spreads its wings and soars off somewhere... only to return back again. He swooped past my window the other day and it almost looked like an eagle... yet I know it wasn't. Probably a hawk of some type like the ones that soar above the courthouse in Miami or even the ones that live behind my son's house in Hollywood. Always scavenging about and then taking a break and swirling around in the air catching the breeze, hanging, gliding and then landing back in their nest high in the trees.
Weather is a lot like watching birds. Fronts come and go gliding across the map, swooping down on satellite imagery and then moving out to sea.
NOW in New Orleans moving into Mississippi
3 Tornado Slash Water Spouts danced across Lake Ponchartrain.
Tomorrow this system threatens Florida Deja Vu style.
But today I'm watching very busy black birds.
Do they know something I wonder?
Bad weather coming this way tomorrow in NC.
Would they tell me that if they could talk?
Marc, who moved to Memphis, used to say there was a family of Eagles over near Ravenscroft. I believe Marc because Marc is a really good old Southern guy who knows his birds and is the ultimate observer of life. But, it was called RAVENScroft for a reason. I could pretend it's an eagle the way we can believe a some what nicely formed tropical wave really might make it across the Atlantic despite dry air and strong head winds.
If you watch that loop you can see the next big storm forming down near Texarkana moving down towards the mouth of the Mississippi River. It dips down sucking up warm, moist energy from the Gulf of Mexico the way a hawk stops gliding and returns to his nest to stare down and decide where he is going next.
There is it. Looks a lot like some small early May Tropical Storm...
... down near the Tex Mex border.
Using our tropical loops let's see what this little puppy's got.
On the last few frames you can see the moisture begin to pull North.
The Subtropical Jet still enhanced by El Nino is also visible.
Air is moving across the South and then up the coast and off the coast.
Less Polar Vortex digging down South and more Southern Jet.
The storm system begins to make it's move.
People have been watching this system for a while now.
Rob of Crown Weather fame has written about it.
I like the fact that he used the term weather hazard.
That is what this is... it's a weather hazard.
Sort of like on the golf course I suppose.
Water hazard, weather hazard.
Possible Tornadoes, Strong Weather, Flooding.
Rain. Heavy Rain.
I heard many refer to it as a WINTER STORM.
I suppose TWC has a name.
It's not quite a Spring Storm but feels like one.
You can follow it here:
http://www.weather.gov/
Watch the watches and warnings go up.
In a few days the storm hovers over the Mid Atlantic
Rides up I 95 about the time my kids drive South.
Lifts up across the backbone of the Appalachians.
Pounds the Piedmont with severe Spring like winter.
The big black birds are up in the pine looking down.
There's a small squirrel traipsing around the bare maple tree.
Everyone is watching something.
I told my daughter she can check out bridal weather.
http://www.bridalweather.com/I95.html
Honest... just turn the sound down if you don't want to hear their infomercial.
They have good travel coverage...
....figuring people travel to weddings I guess.
My friend Pat who is more like a red bird...
loves this map below.
It's sort of easy to see where this mess is all going.
You can get that map and others on Spaghetti Models.
Such a plethora of satellite imagery.
It's like a big pasta buffet.
Okay I have a thing for make up...
But the big question with this system is the same...
Timing.
Is it a fast mover or a slow mover.
Do the models have the timing right?
The moisture is there ...
The jet stream is there to grab it...
When and where does it go?
It's all in the timing.
Like a good tap dance.
The birds flew off...
The squirrel went back behind the picket fence out of view.
Once the Low wraps and begins to move we will know.
In North Carolina we get the chance for severe weather on Wednesday.
I'm making a shopping list for Publix today.
Where shopping is a pleasure ....
...now in the Raleigh area :)
Up in DC I suggest people watch the Capital Weather Gang.
Tornadoes, Trucks and Bridges Free Falling This Week in South Florida. Backhoe Stolen Taken For Joy Ride in Florida Keys.
Since it's a relatively slow news day I'm going to post a few "you can't make this up" Florida News stories. Seems trucks and bridges were in the news this week in South Florida. From overturned tractor trailers to stolen back hoes to falling garbage trucks... trucks were in the news. Note only the overturned tractor trailer was weather related... the others... just another Banana Republic sort of news story as it seems the pythons and alligators were laying low.
My father had one fear about driving to Key West.
He would drive past the Upper Keys.
He was always afraid a tractor trailer would turn over and...
...shut down the one road in and out for hours.
He could always get off I-95 Northbound to Orlando..
..so we went to Disney often.
He never imagined someone would steal a backhoe...
...and shut it down for 2 hours.
Seems bridges and transportation were in the news all week.
"The accident — which miraculously occurred on a holiday when the typically bustling Jose Martí Park was quiet — happened around 5 p.m. on the I-95 southbound exit ramp to Southwest Seventh Street. Authorities said the driver, identified as city employee Kaseem Smith, plunged about 100 feet and was apparently thrown from the crumpled cab, which split from the garbage container."
A sort of President's Day Miracle.
Usually the park is busy.
Traffic of course stopped as people jumped out of their cars...
...to look below to see where the City of Miami Garbage Truck landed
Nice little park. Hidden gem by the river ....
...good use of public land.
Unless a garbage truck flies off the high bridge...
Oddly the first signs of a tornado in Miami on Tuesday came in...
...when I-95 was shut down by cars and trucks tossed about by high winds.
A tractor trailer, the kind my father worried on, was turned on it's side.
Location: Miami, Raleigh, Crown Heights, Florida, United States
Weather Historian. Studied meteorology and geography at FIU. Been quoted in Wall Street Journal, Washington Post & everywhere else... Lecturer, stormchaser, writer, dancer. If it's tropical it's topical ... covering the weather & musing on life. Follow me on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/#!/BobbiStorm