Tornado Watch 940 For All of Southern Florida Until 8:00PM

New Tornado Watch Issued For All of South Florida -

Recently in the last hour a new Tornado Watch #940 was issued for all of Southern Florida, including the Florida Keys, and a small portion of east-central Florida as well. Strong to isolated severe storms continue to organize northwest of Lake Okeechobee and moving ashore Southwest Florida. These storms are expected to continue to strengthen and become more of a threat into the late afternoon hours. The tornado watch is active until 8pm local tonight. Several active tornado warnings already issued in some central Florida counties in the last hour. Storms are becoming more developed further south and east with each passing hour. Expect more development into the greater Okeechobee region into the late afternoon as more storms move in from the west.

Here is the latest from Tornado Watch #940 just issued here at 1:00pm ET.

DISCUSSION…SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE TO INCREASE IN COVERAGE AND INTENSITY THIS AFTERNOON IN REGION OF VERY STRONG VERTICAL SHEAR BUT MINIMAL CAPE. DESPITE WEAK LAPSE RATES ALOFT…IMPRESSIVE LOW LEVEL VERTICAL SHEAR WILL PROMOTE A FEW ORGANIZED/SUPERCELL STORMS CAPABLE OF TORNADOES AND DAMAGING WINDS.

Weatherzine continuing to monitor the developing severe storms out ahead of the main trough. Stay tuned for further updates this afternoon and into the evening hours.

Severe Storms Moving Into Orlando, Okeechobee, Ft Pierce

Tornado Watch In Effect For Central Florida -

The last several hours the thunderstorms have increased over western central Florida and the Lake Okeechobee region. The main squall line is now moving into the greater Tampa Bay offshore waters and will be moving ashore in the next hour or two with isolated damaging winds and heavy rains. Further south and east, there is another convergence zone with a moderate narrow line of showers and embedded thunderstorms. There seems to also be some more discrete cell trying to break off of this line, and these must be monitored closely over the next hours for any signs of rotation. This featured could become the main show into the early afternoon hours, so everyone from Sarasota northeast to Orlando and point east like to Sebring need to closely watch the weather the next few hours.

SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT… FORMAL ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUESTED. THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE REQUESTS SPOTTERS TO FORWARD REPORTS OF SEVERE WEATHER BY TELEPHONE TO 321-255-0212

Strong Storm Heading Toward Ft Peirce, FL -

Here in the last 25 minutes, and strong pulse-like storm moved through Okeechobee County, with winds gusting near 45mph at time and with very heavy rainfall. The cell has since now moved rapidly northeastward into St Lucie County, but winds remain very gusty here and steady. The more beefy end of this storm could impact Ft Pierce, FL in the next 30 minutes, and the storm cell looks to becoming a tad more organized with each radar scan. Actually as I type, the National Weather Service in Melbourne, FL just issued a Special Weather Statement for these cells:

AT 1148 AM EST…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED HEAVY SHOWERS MOVING RAPIDLY OFF LAKE OKEECHOBEE.. MOVING NORTHEAST AT 50 MPH. ADDITIONAL HEAVY SHOWERS AND EMBEDDED STORMS WILL DEVELOP AND LIKEWISE MOVE RAPIDLY TOWARD THE NORTHEAST. STRONG WINDS JUST ABOVE THE SURFACE WILL BE TRANSPORTED TO THE GROUND IN SOME AREAS… PRODUCING STRONG GUSTS.

Continue to close watch these cells over the next hour. Also further isolated storms are developing now to the west, so it will likely become very active with possible severe storms for the remainder of the afternoon from north to south.

Weatherzine Related Posts:

• Tornado, Severe Storm Threat Increasing, Storm Chase Active Now

Tornado, Severe Storm Threat Increasing, Storm Chase Is

Severe Weather Threat Increasing For Central Florida Today -

• Additional Tornado Watch #939 Issued For Much of Central Florida

SPC-DISCUSSION…LINE OF STORMS WITH EMBEDDED BOW ECHOES AND SUPERCEL STRUCTURES WILL CONTINUE EAST THROUGH THE NRN AND CNTRL FL PENINSULA THIS AFTERNOON. THE ATMOSPHERE DOWNSTREAM ACROSS THE FL PENINSULA WILL CONTINUE TO DESTABILIZE WITH DIABATIC HEATING AND INCREASING LOW LEVEL DEWPOINTS SUPPORTING MLCAPE FROM 500 TO 1000 J/KG. HODOGRAPHS AND VERTICAL SHEAR PROFILES WILL REMAIN FAVORABLE FOR SUPERCELLS AND BOWING STRUCTURES AHEAD OF EWD ADVANCING UPPER TROUGH SUPPORTED BY STRONG SWLY LOW AND MID LEVEL JETS. ISOLATED DAMAGING WIND AND TORNADOES WILL BE THE PRIMARY THREATS.

Florida Storm Chase Is On – Chase Status Active

Wind shear continues to increase, under full sun, and moisture continues to surge northward from the Florida Keys and Caribbean, and all this is helping to set the stage for strong to severe storms ahead of the line developing in the next few hours and continuing into the evening hours tonight. The better severe storm, and / or rotating storms looks to be from about Orlando southward into deep South Florida today, where better heating and moisture are in place. I’ll be chasing today within this area looking for more discrete storm cells well out ahead of the main pre-frontal trough “squall line” from about south-central Florida into deep southern Florida this afternoon.

Stay tuned for further updates on this late Fall season severe weather setup over Florida.

 Weatherzine Related Posts:

• Severe Storms Moving Into Orlando, Okeechobee and Ft Pierce
• Monitoring For Possible SFL Severe Storms Sunday
• Gulf Low Pressure Could Stir Up Severe Storms This Sunday

Monitoring For Possible SFL Severe Storms Sunday Afternoon

Sunday and Sunday Evening Possible Severe Storms -

The Storm Prediction Center this morning discussed a little about the increased threat for Southern Florida late into Sunday, and that they might need to bump up into a slight risk category if the trends continue.

THIS SRN ACTIVITY WILL EVOLVE WITHIN A MUCH MORE UNSTABLE ENVIRONMENT DURING THE EVENING HOURS AS COOLING ALOFT OVERSPREADS INCREASING BOUNDARY LAYER MOISTURE. MODELS APPEAR TO BE CONVERGING TOWARD A SOLUTION THAT IS MORE CONDUCIVE FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS SOUTH FL. A SLIGHT RISK FOR SUPERCELLS…AND POTENTIALLY ISOLATED TORNADOES…MAY VERY WELL BE NEEDED ACROSS THIS REGION IF SUCCESSIVE MODEL RUNS CONTINUE TO CONVERGE ON THIS STRONGLY SHEARED…BUOYANT AIRMASS.

Standing By For Some Late Fall Storm Chasing Florida Style

No matter what takes place tomorrow, I’ll be sure to be monitoring the setup in the early morning, and head out in the afternoon for some possible late Fall Florida storm chasing. Nothing like a Sunday with some early afternoon NFL Dolphins football, followed by some late afternoon and early evening storm interception. I’d really like to experience both on Sunday to put a nice close to my extended Thanksgiving weekend.

Look for further updates tomorrow…

Related Weatherzine Posts:

• Gulf Low Pressure Could Stir Up Severe Storms This Sunday
• Tornado, Severe Storm Threat Increasing, Storm Chase Is Active Now
• Severe Storms Moving Into Orlando, Okeechobee and Ft Pierce

A Great Thanksgiving Day With Family and The Weather

A Enjoyable Thanksgiving Day 2008 -

Thanksgiving here in South Florida turned out to be a beautiful warm day. After a chilly start, with temperatures in the upper 30’s as far south as interior South Florida, it warmed up nicely into the lower 70’s under a deep blue sky with fast moving high level cirrus clouds. The weather couldn’t of been any better, well, if there was raging Supercell thunderstorms, I would have been just as happy. Nevertheless, it was a fine day for visting family and being Thankful for what we have today. I shot this picture on our way into West Palm Beach for dinner, as the sun was becoming lower in the sky, back lightning the cool broken high-level clouds moving in from the west. Wish I would have had the time to stop and shoot and time lapse scene.

We made a few stops at with family and ended the evening with Thanksgiving dinner at my brothers house in Boynton Beach. My brother being a chef, had this huge dinner made up, and Kersten, JJ and I sure packed it in. We got to spend some good time with my 2 year old nephew Alan, and he was having a blast with us there. He love’s to play with J.J. All in all, a great day and it ended with a long drive back into the chilly weather of Okeechobee County.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving…

Gulf Low Pressure Could Stir Up Severe Storms This Sunday

Monitoring Forecast Models For Possible Severe Storms Sunday -

The latest weather forecast computer models have continued to come into better agreement the last day or so, that a strong surface low pressure system will organize in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico sometime around Sunday. Some of the models develop a 990mb low and then track it northeastward up the Mid-Atlantic coast, and at the same time putting much of Florida in the warm sector of the system with possible strong to severe storms ahead of the trough boundary. It’s still too early to know how much moisture and warm air modification of the atmosphere over Florida will take place over the weekend, but if there is a decent rebound of dew points through the Friday and Saturday, we could be looking at some severe weather possibilities Sunday-Monday timeframe. It will be interesting to watch the next several model runs to see if the trends continue for a late November severe weather setup over central and Southern Florida.

Late Season Florida Storm Chasing Possible -

If severe storms become a threat late in the weekend, I’ll be sure to be out on the road in search of some late season rotating storms. What Storm Chaser can pass up a late season severe weather setup before heading into those nil winter thunderstorm months. Here’s to some nice moisture rebounding this weekend! This could all take place on November 30^th, which also marks the last day of the 2008 Atlantic basin hurricane season. So, while Floridians sigh in relief that the season came to a close with no land falling hurricanes in 2008, there could be some strong severe storms to tend with, but the rain will be very welcomed.

More to come over the extended Thanksgiving holiday weekend on this possible developing storm system. Happy Thanksgiving!

Latest Weatherzine Video update, Tweaking The Editing

Another Weatherzine Video Update Stream -

Good morning on this Monday before Thanksgiving 2008. Hard to believe it’s already Turkey time and soon we’ll be deep into the Holiday season by the end of the week. It sure has felt more like December than November here in Florida the last week or so, and I cover this in the latest Weatherzine video update. The included video picture grab seen here is a snap shot of this weeks video update, and you can find the stream YouTube player on the right side of the website. There is also the option of streaming a higher resolution format to view on your computer by clicking the link directly below the YouTube player window. This will bring you to the YouTube website with a large player, and right below it choose “watch in higher quality”. Click here for that page. Or just watch it in the small player to your right under “Featured Video”.

I know many will be hitting the road early this week, so in case this is your last stop by the site until after the Holiday, Happy Thanksgiving!

A Lazy Morning, Why Not Play Around With Some Video Editing

Killing Time Playing Around With Video Timelines -

What better way to kill time with messing around with video editing tricks, when it’s chilly outside on a lazy Saturday morning. J.J. and I were just hanging around the house this morning as Florida was seeing yet another cold morning. J.J. was playing Playstation and Wii, while I was messing around with shooting some video scenes in the house and playing with editing tricks. I normally don’t mess with timeline tricks as when I’m working with video, it’s normally just for adding clips to a timeline and rendering for upload for TV and such. The only time I do is when editing video for Weatherzine or making a DVD production. I’m no expert in all this video editing tricks, just learning from some articles I have read recently online and in my favorite video magazine Videomaker. I just love tinkering around on a lazy day with something video-wise.

Shooting The Shot, Then Editing The Timeline

So, I got out my HDV cam, and set it up on a tripod, framed up the above captured shot with J.J. playing games on the TV. I then placed myself to the left talking to him asking why he plays game so much. I then held the static shot and just moved over to the other side and began asking him some of the same, while acting like I was talking to the other Jeff at the same time. Pretty goofy! Anyways – Then in the timeline I trimmed up the first and second clips, and place the second one as the overlay scene, cropped out half of the frame bringing in the clip one in it’s place. Now when I playback the video in real-time, you see me on both sides talking to J.J. at once. Kind of weird, but funny. I still need to fine tune shooting the scene first, making sure my lightning and anything in the background does not change. It’s no big trick, but was fun messing around with it.

Heading Out To Shoot What I Do Best

I plan to head to the coast later for the large surf and winds going on today, and shoot and work on something I do know well, and that’s capturing the weather. So, have a great weekend out there, and if your bored and have your favorite video editing software and a cam, try messing around with tricks on the timeline…a great way to kill a few hours and add some jazz to your next YouTube video.

Hard Freeze Forecasted Tonight As Arctic Intrusion Continues

Northern Florida To See Continued Hard Freeze Threat -

The latest in a series of cold fronts that has been keeping Florida in a unusual early winter pattern the last two weeks, blasted through northern Florida earlier today. This latest boundary opened the door to arctic temperatures to filter into the Southeast and Northern Florida region and setting the stage for another night of hard freezing. Damaging low temperatures could be seen are far south as Ocala, FL in the interior of the state, and over the remainder of North Florida and the Panhandle. The National Weather Service is using strong wording for overnight temps forecasted and the threat of sub-freezing weather for several hours early in the morning Saturday.

MINIMUM TEMPERATURES WILL BOTTOM OUT IN THE UPPER 20S EARLY SATURDAY MORNING WITH DURATIONS OF 4 TO 7 HOURS OF SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES EXPECTED. LOWS IN THE MID 20S WILL BE POSSIBLE IN NORMALLY COLDER LOCATIONS BUT A WIDESPREAD HARD FREEZE IS NOT EXPECTED.

Early Winter Patten Fooling The Calendar

It’s only late November but were seeing winter weather that normally northern Florida experiences in late December through late February. The Fall season quickly turned into winter shortly after the rainy season came to a close only about a month ago. Seasonal temperatures the last several weeks have been well below normal at times, and many record setting cold morning have already be recorded this Fall season. Believe it or not, this pattern looks to continue through Thanksgiving Day with cooler weather in place.

Messing Around With Chroma Key Editing For Weatherzine Videos

Chroma Key Questions In This Weeks Email -

Over this past week I have received several emails asking how I did my latest video with the storm footage in the background of me during the segment. This is the video seen in the right sidebar of Weatherzine using the YouTube embed player that I have been trying to update weekly. Well, in my home office I have a green screen setup on one of my walls, and this is what I use to key out the background behind me while in post-editing, and replace the green area with any weather footage I like. It’s all software generated in post production, and the same thing used in movies, and also your local weather news segments with weather maps. It’s become very easy to Chroma Key these days, as many of the higher end post-production editing software titles have this option. As long as you get your lightning (3 point) right to minimize your shadows, and your not wearing any wild colors, you can easily Chroma Key almost anywhere. It’s a lot of fun.

Weatherzine Video Updates To Become Longer and More Informative

I plan to use green screen here and there in my weekly videos just to add some fun to the video. I’m still trying to fine tune my videos with the format, style, editing, and scripting. Eventually, I plan to move the video streams off of YouTube and stream them off my server in a custom widescreen player once I get it down they way I want it each week. YouTube limits you to about a Gig of file size per video and this is about 10 minutes of video. In the future I’d like the program to run about 30 minutes, and also in higher resolutions for streaming on Weatherzine, and also download for HD playback. I’ll continue to mess around with all this through the winter months and roll something that’s more like a webcast by early spring.

What Do You Watch On The Internet?

There is so much we all can do today with video, and it also has become extremely popular online to watch webcasts, video blogs, and homemade video programming shows produced in small room studios in the back of a house. Is there any online shows you watch either related to weather or not on the web? Let us know in the comments below…

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