Oh Gee More Cold Temps, It’s More like January Than November

Please Turn Off The Cold and Dryness -

Here’s another day, and another day well below normal temperature wise. I tell you what, we can’t even break 72F the last several days, and this is beginning to takes it toll on me. KyKy, our 4 pound, 3year old Maltese is not a big fan of the cold weather either, as you can see her chilled on the patio this morning in this picture. We normally see extended cool weather patterns like this in January and February, not November. Orlando was 39F this morning breaking a record, and another reinforcing shot of cold weather is expected overnight. Looks like we won’t warm up until Sunday once the winds finally veer around more easterly. Northerly winds across the Florida peninsula are not common and they feel like they have been this way for two weeks. Beginning to have marine air withdraws with all this very dry northerly winds. Hopefully it will end soon and Thanksgiving week will be much warmer.

Watch New Hurricane Ike DVD and Released A Review

I did receive a copy of fellow Storm Chaser and good friend Jim Edds latest DVD release of Hurricane Ike the other day. Unfortunately I couldn’t chase this storm due to doctor request, but sure missed out on a crazy storm for sure. Kersten and I watched the DVD again this morning, and Jim did a great job on this production. I wrote up a Hurricane Ike DVD review, which you can find at the link here or on the tropical weather page. Defiantly a DVD for all your cane junkies out there. It was nice to ride along in a storm that I couldn’t there for, and helped with my current blues of no active thunderstorm weather and all this cold junk. Read DVD review

Other than that, a pretty uneventful Thursday so far, and I think after I close out this post, I’m going to head outside to the Southside of the house (backyard), and sit in the warm sun out of the wind where it’s not too bad, at least for my standards. Ha!

Hurricane Ike 2008 Documentary DVD Review, Galveston, TX

Diving Into The New Hurricane Ike DVD Release -

I received a complementary copy of the latest Hurricane DVD release by good friend and fellow Hurricane Chaser and filmmaker Jim Edds. Jim just released his latest hurricane documentary covering Major Hurricane Ike to strike the Southeastern Texas coastline on September 13, 2008. Jim and I have chased several large hurricane events together in the past, including Hurricanes Charley, Katrina and many others. Unfortunately for me this season, I had travel constraints that kept me from heading out to Texas for the Hurricane Ike interception this past summer. But Jim and other fellow Storm Chasers were there to capture the raw power of Ike at landfall from start to finish, giving a sobering and jaw dropping perspective through the lens of the Hurricane Chaser. A truly great hurricane documentary filmed by three Storm Chasers at ground zero Galveston, Texas.

Ready To Watch – Bring On Hurricane Ike

The DVD came packaged shrink wrapped and in a DVD case with that trademark “Edds Look” hurricane cover art like some of Jim‘s previous releases, also on a pro DVD-5 disk. The cover art case and disk are great for those hurricane junkies out there, and looks great in my collection on the shelf. I was pumped to start watching the new video since I had yet to really see anything shot by Jim and others during the storm. This was going to be all new and fresh for me, and with it being cold outside on a early Florida cold snap, what better time for this hurricane chaser to sit back and watch some real hurricane chasing.

The Chase Begins – Are You Ready?

Jim start’s out with a excellent introduction to the lifespan of Hurricane Ike, all the way from the organizing stages to the track through the Northern Caribbean islands. Next Jim travels back to his old stopping grounds of the lower Florida Keys, as at one point, Hurricane Ike looks to affect Southern Florida and the Keys. Jim tours around the islands just before Ike’s closest passage and then during, showing scenes of some pretty impressive wind and wave action for a storm over 100 miles to the south-southwest near western Cuba. I was quite impressed with the wind field already with Ike.

Into The Main Expedition and Interception Target Area

Next Jim makes the long haul around a good chunk of the Gulf of Mexico, along the I-10 corridor tracking westward as many are leaving for the east in long lines of traffic jams. Jim Finally arrives in the target area of Galveston, TX, where Hurricane Ike was expected to make landfall. At the same time, fellow severe storm and hurricane Chasers Jeff Piotrowski and my good friend and chase partner Chris Collura were arriving on the scene as well. This is where in the film Jim takes you not only on his perspective of the storm, but also through the lens of Jeff’s and Chris’s as well, all perfectly mixed and editing carrying you through the first affects of Ike storm surge and winds before dark.

From this point on into the film (I don‘t want to give it all away), Jim and the gang bring you through the landfall of Ike during the overnight hours from several locations. Showing the calm of the eye and the impressive storm surge. They continue into first light with the first on scene aftermath images just as the surge begins to pull back out to sea, while shooting in very strong winds. Jim mixed in some outstanding Coast Guard rescue video for a bonus in the film, and before and after scenes from aerial storm surge aftermath. Chris shot unreal townhouse fires at first light, and Jeff’s aftermath surge debris is very impressive.

A Must Have For Hurricane Enthusiasts – Order Today!

Overall the Hurricane Ike documentary is one of Jim’s best release’s, and Jim, Jeff and Chris did a excellent job telling the story of a historic hurricane event to hit Texas and the United States during the busy 2008 Atlantic basin hurricane season. This DVD is defiantly worth adding to your weather or hurricane DVD home video collection, especially if you’re a tropical cyclone or hurricane enthusiast like myself.

You can visit Jim’s website ExtremeStorms.com for full DVD release and ordering information. Runtime: 61 Minutes / Price: $25.00

Whining About The Cold Florida Weather Yet Again

Florida Long-Lived Cold Snap Continues -

Waking up to a cold brisk morning, with temps running about 40F with wind chills in the lower 30’s. Much colder here in the interior compared to the coastlines of South-central Florida. Luckily our central air and heat was fixed yesterday, and it only turned out to be a loose wire on the power for the fan. Glad it was something simply and nothing costly. With this morning cold weather here in Okeechobee, it’s sure nice to have the heat cranked up along with a morning fire. Got J.J. on the bus after watching him get a little taste of those mid thirties wind chill readings on his face. Burr!.. he says when heading out of the car. Him and the other kids all hooded up, jumping around on the corner waiting for the bus getting a taste of temps we normally seen in January not November.

Ok Now, Where’s That Return Modified Flow? Warm Up Please!

For those of you reading up north, remember were not use to all this cold weather, especially us Florida natives that only get a taste of these cold snaps a few times a year for a day or so at a time. Temperatures in the lower 40’s with a wind is down right brutal to me. I’m the biggest wimp when it comes to cold weather, and it’s all find and good around the holidays, but that’s about the only time you’ll find me saying it’s nice a cool outside. Unfortunately for me, were currently experiencing a prolong period of below normal cold weather, as a series of short-wave troughs dig into the southeastern United States and Florida. Each front continues to reinforce the last with colder and drier air, setting up continued prime cold air advection down the spin of the Florida peninsula on a north-northwest wind flow. This is forecast to extended into the weekend with highs only getting into the upper 60’s and lows at night lower 40’s.

Like always, it could be worse, like the hard freeze over northern Florida region this morning and likely tomorrow too. No Thanks! Got some nice warm coffee coming off the stove, and making some warm waffles, and think I’ll dive into more editing here on the site and keep away from the cold outside.

Brown Recluse Spider Ramps Up Anxiety This Morning

The morning started off like every other Monday this morning, but was about to be ramped up a bit with anxiety. Kersten and J.J were just about to leave for the day, and we were just talking in the living room killing their last five minutes before J.J. had to be at the bus stop. When out of the corner of my eye, I see this fast moving dark spot running up the wall really fast. I look over and see that it’s a damn huge spider. All I said was, “whoa now that’s a damn big spider”. Soon Kersten and JJ caught sight of it, which lead to screams and panic as this thing now jumps from wall to wall. Ugh! This was no small spider, maybe the width of a medium coffee cup, with thin long legs. This thing continued to racing around and this caused a lot of panic in the room, including myself as I can’t stand spiders. After 15 minutes of chasing this creature around the dinning room, I finally sprayed it and killed it.

Time To Research The Spider’s Background Like On The Discovery Channel

I took the spider outside and laid it on a patio deck chair as seen in the picture above, and took a few close-up shots of it so I could go and identify it. Sure enough as I suspected, it was a Florida Brown Recluse Spider after comparing it to pictures online. I was really now not happy about this. Brown Recluse’s are venomous spiders with a nasty bite that can cause severe flesh infections and pain. In the four years that we have lived in this house, we have never come across such a spider dead or alive. Not sure if the cold weather forced the spider inside, or maybe it came in with the firewood boxes that we just brought into the house several days ago. Nevertheless, I’m a little anxious this morning after all this spider killing, picture taking, researching and blogging about the damn thing. I can handle mostly any type of insect, even small spiders, but large spiders jumping around kind of freak me out. LOL!

Luckily no on was bitten and hopefully that was the only one to get into the house. I’ll be having someone come out for a second spray around the house just in case. All this Florida cold weather tends to send some insects indoors looking for warmer climate and water. Sure I can deal with that as long as it’s not big fast moving spiders…

 
Related Posts:
Numerous Golden Silk Banana Spiders Video Jupiter Florida

Florida Cold Snap and Broken Heater Keeps Fireplace Busy

As I noted in my previous personal post, Kersten and I were dealing with some problems with our central Air and heating system the last 24 hours. Well, we’ve yet to get the problem fixed being the weekend and thought, oh it will be a nice and cool out with the latest cold front, so it can wait until Monday. Sure that was true yesterday on Sunday during the day it was very cool in the lower 60’s under a brisk northerly wind. It made for some nice Sunday afternoon NFL football watching (Fins win again!) with a few windows open. Well, last night was a whole other story, and it got real cold with the temperatures dropping into the 40’s by 10pm. We quickly found out how much we really love our fireplace as we couldn’t turn on our heat like we normally would on a cold night. Luckily for us, we just had bought a nice amount of real firewood that we saw on sale last weekend. So, it was time to fire up the fireplace to get a little warmth the old fashion way.

On Firewood Overnight Detail Duty – Keeping It Warm

Now, late into the evening Kersten headed to bed and I stayed up to help maintain the fire as the temperatures outside fell fairly fast. I grabbed a blanket and my fire poker, and sat down in front of the fireplace keeping the fire hot, while I blogged this post and watched cool geeked up Science Channel overnight programming. It sure was nice and cozy in the house, but a lot of baby sitting the fireplace to keep it that way overnight. Lucky for me I didn’t have anything to be up early for, so I kept the fire going well into the early morning hours. Our house is very well insulated and the fireplace did well keeping it warm and turning on the ceiling fans on low helped to mix around the warm air throughout the house. This is not something we normally have to deal with here in South Florida. I’m sure glad I don’t live up north, or even along the Florida Georgia border for that matter. -grin- LOL

Hey! – Need My Heat Fixed, Continued Cold Weather Expected

Hopefully later today our AC / Heating system issue will be resolved, because the next several nights the temperatures are forecast to be well below normal, and a extended period of cold weather should last throughout the week. The afternoons might be very enjoyable with the windows open the next few days, but at night it’s going to be way too cold for us native Floridians to not have any heat. I’ll keep you posted!

 

Frost Expected Overnight In Northern Florida and Panhandle

Frost Advisories Issued For Northern Florida Tonight -

The strong mid November cold front that raced through the southeast and Florida on Saturday is helping to setup a very cold night in Northern Florida. The National Weather Services offices in both Tallahassee and Jacksonville, FL have issued Frost Advisories for the late overnight and early morning hours. Overnight low temperatures are expected to reach the lower 30’s, with some sheltered locations to reached below freezing for a few hours. Temperatures were falling fast at sunset Sunday evening, with the western Panhandle regions already falling into the lower to mid 50’s. Tallahassee at 5pm was already at 56F with the dew point sitting at the 32F freezing mark. The temps are likely to be well into the 40’s by mid evening as far south as north-central Florida.

NWS- TLH: LOCATIONS MOST LIKELY TO SEE TEMPERATURES REACH FREEZING LATE TONIGHT WILL BE ALONG AND SOUTH OF THE I-10 CORRIDOR WHERE SANDIER SOILS WILL ENHANCE THE COOLING. THE COLD TEMPERATURES AND LIGHT WINDS ARE EXPECTED TO RESULT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PATCHY FROST DURING THE LATE NIGHT HOURS.

The cold weather pattern will continue into the new week, with temperatures ranging like Sundays and Mondays well into mid week with more overnight changes of isolated freezing and frost. It will not begin to modify with more moisture and warmer temps until late into the week and next weekend. A prolong period of cool weather is expected for the remainder of the week for all of the Southeast United States and much of the Florida peninsula.

Experience Frost Overnight and Have Pictures?

Have frost overnight? Share your Florida cold weather pictures! Use the my-submit option at the top of the navigation bar.

Sweating Out Florida Record November High Temperatures

What a hot and humid Saturday it was, and we sure did feel and sit through the worst of it as we had some AC issues early in the day. Florida saw record high temperatures ahead of the cold front and it was truly hot for mid November. Unfortunately for us, our air conditioner stopped working early in the day for what reason were not sure yet. I knew by mid evening a strong cold front was forecast to blast into the area ushering in much cooler and drier temperatures. As seen in this photo, I awaited the cold front with arms wide open, because when the sun went down, the breeze died with it, and it was very hot and humid in the house well into the evening hours. Temperatures reaching 88F in many South Florida locations made it a stuffy hot box of a house today. It was hard to believe it got as hot as it did when looking at the calendar.

There’s That Front I’ve Been Waiting For

By 8:30pm the first of the pre frontal boundary moved through shifting the winds west-northwest and lowering the humidity’s several degree’s. A fresh breeze setup and cooler temps started to filter in, and with all the windows open, the once hot box of a house began to cool slowly. We were all like “ahhhh” “wheeew!” I normally don’t wish on these cold fronts, but it was very uncomfortable today and it was a nice short-term fix to our little issue that will likely get fixed on Monday. The weather around here is expected to remain well below normal for the remainder of the week with temps at night in the upper 40’s and highs in the 70’s. I told Kersten at dinner, it could have been worse, like the AC going on the brink in mid July with afternoons in the mid 90’s and 75F dew points. Yeah we remember the hot days and night back in 2004 after the hurricanes with no power for 18 days.

 

Much Colder Weather Moving Into Central Florida Region

Mid November Cold Front Will Bring Cold Temps To Orlando -

After a enjoyable warm few days, a well developed cold front will be passing through the entire state of Florida tonight, and central Florida will see some chilly weather for the second half of the weekend and well into late next week. Highs in the upper 60’s to lower 70’s during the afternoons will be the norm for at least the next 5 days, with lows at night in the lower to mid 40’s, with chilly possible wind chills some evenings and mornings. This will make pleasant afternoons, especially if out in local theme parks, or getting some early holiday shopping in at many of the outdoor shopping venues in Central Florida. Just be sure to bring a sweater starting tonight through the remainder of the weekend into mid week next week if out and about.

Further north into Northern Florida counties, slight freezing temperatures will be seen, with patchy frost in some locations and temperatures ranging from the lower to mid 30’s. Luckily this time around those temps will remain further north along the Florida Georgia border and not make it into Central Florida. Further south, Southern Florida will also get it’s share of the cooler weather with brisk north winds and highs in the upper 70’s and cool 50’s a night. A little nip in the air to get the feel of the Holiday season going as we move into mid November.

What Are Your Thoughts On The Cooler Weather?

Do you like the cooler weather of November for the Holidays? Or are you a northern visitor looking for those warm winter Florida days to escape the cold weather up north?

Florida Wasps Look For That Perfect Micro Climate Weather

Insects On The Move For Cooler Weather – Micro Climate Living -

Wasps are extremely common in Southern Florida, and are normally found under roof over hangs, patios, tree’s, and pretty much anywhere they can hang a nest under some sort of shelter. During the hot and humid months here in Florida, wasps nests are widespread, and I actually can spray several a week around my home. They love the hot weather, but now that were well into the Fall season, and much cooler weather has become the norm, especially over the interior counties, many of the wasp nests are gone until next spring. But don’t be fooled! There are the nests that tough it out over the winter months and do quite well finding that perfect temperature micro climate for the next nest location.

Wasps Hanging Near The Warm Waters

In the following wasp nest pictures seen here, you can see a very mature nest, with several dozens wasps hanging under a storm drain outlet into a canal waterway. There is a seawall that extends several feet above the canal water line, with a storm drain outlet pipe that extends about two feet out over the water. These wasps found a nice micro climate location to build this nest right over the warm canal waters that lead out into Lake Okeechobee. While the temperatures at night might be in the 50’s several yards away, it’s a lot warmer hanging over the water that remains fairly warm year round. At times there can be a 15 degree difference in temperature making their little hanging resort a comfortable location to continue breeding during the cooler Florida weather months.

This nest was a very interesting, big and round handing very close to the water surface. I’m surprised bass have not popped out of the water for a nice snack. It will have to be removed soon before it leads to further nests in the area, but it is very interesting to see that they will find that perfect weather climate to survive the winter.

Great Weekend On The Water and Football

Chilling Over The Weekend At The Uncles Beach House -

A late start this week with my weekend review as Monday and Tuesday were very busy for me. Veterans Day weekend was a very enjoyable one for me, with lots of activities with family outdoors enjoying the great Fall weather. It started off on Saturday with a cookout on the intercoastal waters on Hutchinson Island, FL, where my Uncle Don and Aunt Cathy have their beautiful beach house, which has just been recently remolded into this awesome Caribbean / Key West style home. The back patio deck with outstanding with this awesome deck with a huge bar and grill, with hot-tub, all right on the wide open waters of the intercoastal waterway. Everyone gathered for burgers and dogs, and some fruity drinks late in the day Saturday. We rode on their new wave runner, and I took several family members for their first ride on one. It was a lot of fun and very funny at times.

Jetski-Waverunner Fun On The Waters

First off JJ. drove the waverunner with Jason having a blast, and later I took my DeeDee and Dad for their first rides on the open waters. It was very cool. A big thanks to Uncle Don and Cathy for a great gathering, food, and water craft entertainment. Their house is a tropical /beach bum / palm tree / Key West fan beautiful home. Kersten and I were very impressed and loved all the new work, as were big tropical, beach style fans of our own.

Dolphins – Seattle NFL Game This Past Sunday

Sunday continued with more outdoor activity with a trip to Miami for the Dolphins / Seattle game. Drove down early and in the morning and picked up my dad, and we headed down to Miami for the game. Got to the stadium about two hours before kickoff, and enjoyed some tailgating and subs under a outstanding blue sky and breeze off the water Atlantic waters. It was a great game, with a close call win, and you kind of felt that old Dolphins fan feeling in the air during the game. The turn out was good, and the fans were very loud and pumped up before and especially after the game. The game day added to the already busy and fun weekend.

The Weather Really Has Been Nice, But Missing The Storms

The weather the last week has remained cool and very Fall-like. Summer really just turned off and we went right into much cooler and drier weather. Kersten and I have been sleeping with the windows open each night, and the cool afternoon breezes rip through the house making it very comfortable. One nice thing about the cooler weather months here in Florida, you’ll save big time on your power bill, as the day and evening temperatures are just perfect weather for open windows. It really has been nice, but I’m also beginning to really feel the lack of thunderstorms and the rainy season Ugh!

A great holiday weekend it was, how was yours?

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