Okeechobee County Florida Funnel Cloud Pictures

April 17, 2010 – A funnel cloud developed today along a line of low-topped showers in eastern Okeechobee County. These showers developed along a sea and lake breeze convergence boundary on the northeast side of Lake Okeechobee. The funnel cloud lasted about 7 minutes, and was located around 3 miles east-northeast of the city of Okeechobee, Florida.

North-Central Florida Snow Flurries And Sleet Underway

January 9, 2010 – It’s snowing in Florida! That’s right, light snow flurries and sleet reports have begun to come in from several locations early this morning. The National Weather Services offices in Jacksonville, Melbourne and Tampa Bay, have all received some reports this morning of very light frozen precipitation in the form of sleet and isolated snow flurries. The follow radar picture shows a pretty widespread area of snow and rain mix, but many of this is not reaching the ground. However, there are some locations in the heavier precip where it is reaching the ground, and very small accumulation on windshields has been reported.

More to come on this later this morning, with hopefully some video and pictures.

STS-128 Space Shuttle Discovery Launch View South Florida

August 29, 2009 – The central Florida weather cleared in time for STS-128 Space Shuttle Discovery Launch at 11:59pm ET last night. All day Florida saw lightning storms and heavy rains as an upper-level system moved in from the Gulf of Mexico. Weather was the main concern for NASA throughout the day, as it wasn’t clear if the storms and clouds would clear in time for the late night launch. Nothing weather-wise was associated with Tropical Storm Danny that was well offshore northeast of Florida.

By mid evening skies began to clear rapidly from west to east as the upper-level weather system pulled all the associated storm and clouds eastward out into the Atlantic. Skies cleared and Discovery launched on time without any delays.

I planned to attend the launch up at the Cape, but had to cancel do to obligations early Saturday morning. The picture above was taken from my front lawn in Okeechobee County Florida, about 100 miles south of the launch site. It’s a time exposure using a Canon EOS 5D.

Relaxing My Mind With The late Summer Florida Sky

August 26, 2009 – This was a beautiful thunderstorm over south-central Florida. It was such a relaxing storm to watch and photograph. It slowly tracked towards my location, with lightning and thunder displays on the horizon. The storm was back dropped with deep blue summertime skies really making for great contrast of the bright white towering Cumulonimbus. This storm would of made for a very interesting time lapse, but even a snapshot of one moment of it’s life-cycle is just as cool fore me.

The Florida wet and thunderstorm season this year has been outstanding for storm structure and stormy looking landscapes. I’ve really enjoyed everything mother nature has painted the sky with this summer. Still about a month or so to go before the wet season comes to a close. I’ll be watching everyday until then.

Sea Breeze Pulse Thunderstorms Move Into August

August 4, 2009 – Sea breeze lightning storms continued on Monday over the interior regions of central and South Florida. This Highlands, County storm put on a nice mature thunderstorm structure show, as it tilted in the stronger northeasterly mid to upper-level winds.

The rainy season continues across the Sunshine State as it normally would for this time of year. Sea breeze boundaries the last week have focused storm development further over the spine of the Florida peninsula.

By late afternoon into the evening hours, east and west coast sea breeze boundaries, including other mesoscale boundaries, collide creating short-lived pulse storms. Sometimes they become severe for a short period, and propagate down the boundaries lasting well into the late evening hours.

Here is another storm from earlier in the day located in Martin County, FL. This view shows a beautiful thunderstorm anvil with some mammatus. This storms outflow boundary helped to fire off the more widespread storms later in the day west of the Kissimmee River basin.

Port Orange Florida Tornadic Storm Puts On Great Lightning

July 26, 2009 – Typical South Florida after dark lightning storms normally seen during mid-summer, have been very active this July, as seen in the picture below. Afternoon and evening storms have been lasting well into the late evening hours, putting on lightning displays well worth staying for and watching.

Recently on July 24, 2009 – The same organized thunderstorm complex that produced the Port Orange, Florida weak EF-0 tornado event in Volusia County, and the water spout that moved onshore that became a weak tornado in Ormond Beach, FL, put on also a outstanding lightning display. Fellow Storm Chaser Chris Kridler from the Space Coast, was out and about that evening along the coast with her camera ready.

As the storm slowly propagated southward down the east coast sea breeze boundary, it continued to maintain it’s strength, producing a fantastic lightning show over the Space Coast of east central Florida. Chris Kridler captured some amazing lightning photography scenes that night.

The evening began with a farewell to my husband’s brother – a memorial at Lone Cabbage Fish Camp in Cocoa, Florida. Then the skies opened. I had my camera, so when the gathering was over, I sought out the storm. This was one of the best nights I’ve seen for lightning in a long time here

You can view her beautiful display of lightning pictures in her gallery for July 24, 2009. There are 39 photographs in the gallery of Florida’s well known summertime lightning shows. The Florida wet season has been fairly impressive this year, with many upper-level disturbances helping to enhance storms. We’ll see if it continues as we get ready to move into August next week.