Severe Lightning Storm In Florida – Broward Co Tornado

March 29, 2010 – Severe storms, including tornadoes, moved through Central and South Florida on overnight Sunday into Monday. Vivid lightning as seen in this picture taken overnight on Lake Okeechobee, FL. This thunderstorm at one point was tornado warned for signs of strong rotation. Several other storms earlier in the afternoon in Osceola and Brevard Counties were tornado warned, with a brief touchdown in Melbourne, FL.

This morning tornado damage reports are coming in from Broward County, FL, in the Oakland Park region. The National Weather Service in Miami, noted storm spotters reported debris in the air and several funnel clouds. They have also confirmed the tornado, with reports of mobile homes flipped over, debris and powerlines covering roads, and helicopter scenes from local South Florida news stations. New cell phone pictures of the tornado are now circulating on the web and TV as well.

Subfreezing Florida Nights Turn Sprinklers Into Icicle Makers

January 10, 2010 – The Florida insanely cold freezing weather continues. Overnight, temperatures again fell below the freezing mark for 4-6 hours in many locations, and turning lawn sprinklers into icicle makers as seen in this series of icicles pictures. Wind chill values fell into the teens making it dangerously cold for Central and South Florida, and crops and tropical vegetation once again were under the gun from the freeze threat.

Believe it or not, another round of subfreezing weather forecast tonight for all of Florida. Hard Freeze Warnings extend all the way south into southern peninsular interior counties, including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. Temperatures could fall into the mid 20’s setting up more long durations freezing conditions.

On Saturday, sleet and snow flurries were reports over many locations of north-central and central Florida. There were even a few isolated reports of Flurries in Palm beach, Broward and Miami-Dade, although unconfirmed still as of this post.

January is really showing itself in Florida, and many Floridians are sick of the current pattern and would like some more normal and warmer weather to return. Relief is on the horzion, and by Thursday the warm up should really take hold on the Sunshine State.

Related Florida Freeze 2010 Posts:
Florida Freeze Damage Banana Palms Tree’s Snow Possible
North Central Florida Snow Flurries and Sleet Underway
Florida Freeze Continues Tonight Frost Video Pictures

Florida Freeze Damage Palm Banana Tree’s Snow Possible

January 8, 2010 – Florida awoke once again to frosty lawns and impressive cold freezing temperatures for the 6-7th day in a row. Many residents raced each evening to cover sensitive plants and tree’s if at all possible to help avoid losing their tropical vegetation from freeze and frost damage. When driving around this morning, you can already see freeze damage to yards, including Banana and Palm tree’s. St. Augustine lawns, and sensitive tropical flowers are also wilting and turning brown. Several nights of these wintry conditions is starting to take it’s toll in some regions of Southern Florida.

Many locations in South and Central Florida over the last several days have experienced temperatures in the lower to mid 30’s for several hours, and further inland away from the coastal sections, temps fell into the upper 20’s. Now there’s more cold weather on the way for tonight after a brief warm up today. There is also some mall chances of maybe some mixed frozen precipitation (drizzle / snow flurries / sleet) late tonight and early Saturday along east-central, FL. For this to happen many factors need to be in place, and it’s still a little early to see if this will pan out. However, it’s happened before, and most recently in 2003 and 2006. It will be interesting to see what happens overnight with the possibility of flurries. I will be watching the radar closely and temperatures for any snow picture and video opportunities. Weird to say…

So, the freezing weather is returning once again starting late tonight, and is expected to last into the first part of next week. Many low temperature records are being broken, and looks to continue for several more nights.

Related 2010 Florida Freeze Posts:
Subfreezing Florida Nights Turn Sprinklers Into Icicle Makers
North and Central Florida Light Snow Flurries and Sleet Underway
Florida Freeze Continues Tonight Frost Video and Pictures
Florida Cold Brinds Expected Freeze Threat Overnight

Florida Freeze Continues Tonight Frost Video Pictures

January 6, 2010 - Floridians woke up to another morning of well below normal cold weather here in South Florida. Temperatures hovered around 30°F for several hours this morning, with wind chill reading in the lower 20’s over interior counties. This arctic intrusion into tropical Southern Florida, is expected to continue into the weekend, with yet another surge of very cold temperatures. Also, another night tonight of freezing weather is in store for Florida with temps about the same, or even possibly a little colder if the winds can go light. In the following short video segment, you’ll see the frost covered windshields, car’s, house rooftops and lawns from this morning at sunrise.

Northern Florida is really seeing some sub-freezing temperatures as well over long durations the last few nights. Here is a pool in Pensacola, FL with a layer of ice on the surface, with a coffee mug locked into place from the ice. Thanks to Twitter follower @PADRE2425 for sharing this photo with us. Northern Florida and the Panhandle region will continue to see very cold weather conditions again tonight with temps falling into the lower 20’s again. It definitely has been impressive seeing all the records being broken, and recorded low high during the days, and lows at night. Look for this to continue.

Florida crops are also being greatly affected by all this cold air, and there likely has been damage to some varieties of vegetations, including oranges, sugarcane, tropical plants, palm tree’s, and sod fields. Local interior farms still have several nights of threatening weather to contend with, and more possible for next week as well for South and Central Florida locations. So, the start of January 2010 is turning out to be one heck of a cold beginning to the new year for Floridians and retirees down from up north for the Winter season. Stay warm folks!!

A few more pictures of frosty scenes from Okeechobee City, Florida this morning at sunrise.

Related Florida 2010 Freeze Posts:
Subfreezing Florida Nights Turn Sprinklers Into Icicle Makers
North and Central Florida Light Snow Flurries and Sleet Underway
Florida Freeze Damage Palms and Banana Tree’s Snow Possible
Florida Cold Brings Expected Freeze Overnight

Florida Cold Brings Expected Freeze Threat Overnight

January 5, 2010 – Don’t be fooled by this picture, it’s been in the mid 50’s all day here in South Florida, and freezing temperatures are expected later tonight. The picture shows a misleading scene of a nice warm looking sun with coconut palms, but cold northwesterly winds continued to filter in well below normal cold weather for not only South Florida, but the entire state. Late afternoon hours on Tuesday had a range of temperatures from the lower 40’s in the Florida Panhandle, to the mid and upper 40’s in Central Florida. Even at 3pm, the temp in Key West, FL was 59°F.

The National Weather Service in Miami, FL issued earlier this afternoon, a Freeze Warning for metro Southeast Florida counties that include Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. Temperatures are expected to fall near or at the freezing mark in the western suburbs of South Florida. Further north into Central Florida, there are Hard Freeze Warnings in place, as tonight’s low’s are forecasted to fall below 32°F for many hours. This will likely produce crop damage, and make for dangerous cold conditions for residents.

This will make for the third cold night in a row, and the coldest of the week in Florida. More possible arctic weather is on the horizon for Florida next week if the computer forecast models pan out.

Related Florida 2010 Freeze Posts: Florida Freeze Continues Tonight – Video and Pictures

Captured Waterspout Offshore Sanibel Island FL Pictures

October 12, 2009 – Sunday morning a water spout formed about 6 miles due south of Sanibel Island, Florida. Around 9:30am, a developing heavy shower was slowly moving west-northwest over the very warm Gulf waters offshore Southwest Florida. Shortly after a waterspout organized under the dark rain free base of the cell, with a visible funnel about halfway to the water surface. There was a surface circulation and spray ring visible in the pictures after having to enhance the contrast.

Further east over the interior Southern Florida peninsula, they were burning sugarcane like they do every October for harvesting. The easterly flow made for a hazy morning over the eastern Gulf waters, also making it harder to make out if the funnel was truly reaching the surface. From the visible eye, it was easier to see that indeed it was on the water and producing a spray ring. After messing around with the contrast levels in the digital pictures here, you can make out the spray below and to the right of the funnel / spout.

The duration of the water spout was about 7 minutes, at least from the first time I took notice of it, as I was packing up the car after our week long vacation on Sanibel Island. It made for a nice weather lover departing gift for me, after all the other outstanding nature photography I was able to capture throughout the week on the island.

Update – 10/13/09 - I want to thank Daniel Noah, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at The National Weather Service in Tampa Bay. Daniel sent me a archived radar image of the small cell. Below you can see truly how small this little shower was that produced the waterspout. Looking at the image also, I think it might have been further south than 6 miles from Sanibel. Again, thanks to Daniel for the update, and he also noted that the waterspout will be added to storm data.

Similar Waterspout Posts:
Lake Okeechobee Water Spout and Gustnadoes Video
Pompano Beach Florida Waterspout Pictures

Labor Day Weekend Storms Kept Floridians Off Beaches

September 7, 2009 – Labor Day Weekend gave way to widespread thunderstorms over much of Southern Florida from Friday to Monday. Whether it being early morning showers and thunderstorms along the coastal beaches and offshore waters, to late afternoon and evening lightning storms over the interior. Plenty of low and mid-level moisture, combined with heating from early day sun, set the stage for storms to blossom throughout the holiday weekend.

There were even a few severe thunderstorms roaming around over the weekend, and more developed well into the even hours as outflow boundaries collided. Above is a view of a northern Everglades lightning storm converging on a Lake Okeechobee breeze boundary and slowly tracking northward. Many of the storms were slow moving due to the weak steering flow, so some locations picked up several inches of rainfall since Friday.

Although the rains kept many people off the beaches in the morning and afternoons, everyone found some way to enjoy the Labor Day weekend and to close out their summer festivities. As for me, I’m waiting for the official end to summer before getting depressed that the Fall season is truly in effect. That day is quickly approaching on Sept 23, 2009, and my Florida afternoon sea breeze storms will come to a end very soon as the wet season comes to a close as well.

Lazy Mans Late Night Lightning Through The Kitchen Window

September 3, 2009 – A little creative lightning photography through my kitchen window last night. It was kind of like a lazy-mans late night lightning photo session on short notice. I never had the time to acclimate my camera for the very hot and humid weather conditions outside, as I like to keep my house very cool at night around bedtime.

It was shortly before midnight last night, when another complex of thunderstorms moved in from the west after developing along leftover outflow boundaries. Once I heard the thunder, I was frustrated that more storms were coming and I had missed previous nights due to feeling a little under the weather. I knew the camera lens and body was way too cool to bring out into those late South Florida summer nights on short notice, so I said what the heck, I’ll shoot out a window.

I setup a tripod real fast, opened the blinds, focused through the screen and rain, and started shooting away. I shot about 16 exposures, but these two were the only ones worth posting. After seeing them, they are not too bad for shooting out the kitchen window. LOL! Made for a enjoyable end of the day for me, and I never even had to get dressed.

SFL Rotating Storm Developed Along Sea Breeze Boundary

August 24, 2009 – I chased a series of thunderstorms on Sunday, some that developed along outflow boundaries as seen in the rotating storm picture above. This storm developed over Lake Okeechobee in Southern Florida, where two outflow boundaries from earlier sea breeze induced thunderstorms collided over the lake. I shot a significant amount of photo’s of the many stages of this storm from start to end. I will post a follow gallery to this image later in the week when I have more time. It was a very impressive storm and made my evening. More to come on this soon.

Numerous Golden Silk Banana Spiders Video – Jupiter Florida

August 9, 2009 – We were surprised to find a extremely large population of Florida Golden Silk (Banana) Spiders, amongst the Sea Grape trees on Jupiter Beach, Florida this weekend. When I say large population, I mean a significantly large amount of spiders. I’m talking several thousands lining the tops of the Sea Grape canopy and surrounding Coconut Palm Tree’s. There was spider webs everywhere I looked, over my head, all along the trail down to the beach, and they seemed to overlap each other.

Kersten couldn’t take it anymore, and took off back to the car. I’m not a fan of spiders either, but I had to capture some of these scenes because it was so impressive to me. So many spiders in a small area, just hanging around in the afternoon sea breeze winds off the Atlantic Ocean. I could of spent hours trying to film them all, but I shot about 25 or so for this two minute video. I plan to return this upcoming week to the same location, and shoot some South Florida spider photography to go along with my HD video.

Note: If you have a fear of spiders, you may not want to view this video.

Related Posts:
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