| jimw; concerning the small but odly intense storms in your area;have they been moving in primarly from the east,the west,or have they been just more or less building up directly over head? In 2004 I was working at the Miami Everglades KOA near the Redmond community just SW of Miami.The particular area I was in really did not have much of a rainy season as most of the TS which would move towards us from the west would stall only a few miles away,while the storms moving from the east would either move around us or dissapate before reaching us.We did have a few really good ts which came from nearly due north and just some moderate rain from several tropical systems that year.I clearly remember watching the rain bands from Frances and Jeanne approach from the NNE and almost without exception dissapate or weaken drasticaly again just a few miles from us ! I also remember watching huge thunder cells develop over Byscane Bay, only to fall apart even faster than they had developed. At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist,I must say that during that year ,it at times seemed the approaching ts were disappating at a rate that did not seem naturaly possible,and yes I am aware that weather modification activities are going on in parts of the US.It seemed however, that aside from an area extending outward about four to five miles from my location at the KOA ,and the Byscane Bay region the ts generation cycle proceeded as it ''normally'' should.Other than the obvious incredible number of tropical systems in 2004,did you observe any significant local or regional weather abnormalities that year in S. Florida ? One more thing Jim,;it seems that the unusualy warm Gulf and Caribean waters are really having an effect on the weather up here in the N. Carolina MTS.Back in either late April,or early may,central Macon County,where I live went under a 3.30 AM tornado WARNING as the Greenville Spartanburg radar indicated a rotating super cell moving from eastern Clay County directly towards Franklin NC and my home ! This storm developed at an elevation of about 1500 feet,immediately trabsversed the 5000 fot plus Nantahala MTS ,descended the eastern slpoes down to Franklin in central Macon county at 2500 feet and then reached the top of the Cowee MTS at just over 5000' before loosing its rotation. Keep in mind the average temperatures in this region were in the upper 50s to near 70 degrees when this storm occoured.Actualy the temperature at my home rose from 63 to 69 degrees as the storm approaced at about 50 mph.Now this is my fith year in the S Appalachians and I have learnend that severe storms here are normal ,but tornadic super cells such as this one are almost unheard of ! I must say that I have lived in nearly every deep south state and S Florida,where stong and even tornadic storms are common,but I have yet to see a ts that was any more violent than this one was,''out side of storms in which a tornado actualy touched down'' The weather in this storm was even breifly more intense than what I experienced in Hurricane Katrina in S. Miss,30 miles inland ! Aside from this storm,the warm weather daily convective season, began about three weeks early this year in may, instead of June as it normaly does.Although my immediate area has missed out on much of the action so far,not more than three or four days have occoured since may 9th that somewhere within 30 miles of my home has not had convective activity.Actualy we had a two week period in late April in which although Max temperatures at valley level were only in the mid to upper 70s convective storms were firing as often as three times daily with a maximum occourence at around 1pm-3pm.This time of year here in the interior of the mnts our minimum DPts usualy are in the low to mid 50s with max dps maybe reaching as high as 66.This year however ,afternoon DPTs are already reaching early August levels of 73 degrees or so, while minimum DPTs are often as high as 66,even 70 degrees.Something tells me that this summer,once the tropical season is in full swing is going to be a particularly stormy time,all over the great South ! |