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

Afternoon Summer Rains Give Way To A Double Rainbow

August 25, 2009 – A beautiful rainbow encountered on my way into West Palm Beach, Florida recently. Heavy early afternoon thunderstorms developed along coastal sea breeze boundary producing heavy rains. As the storm moved east, the sun came out shining on the backside of the heavy rain core making a vivid double rainbow. I wish I had the opportunity to stop beside the intersection where this picture was taken for a better view and without the street lights and signs. Either way, it was a nice scene for the moment that I came across it.

Flower Box Florida Mourning Dove And Her Eggs Pictures

August 14, 2009 – Once again we have another Florida Mourning Dove, or maybe the same one, nesting with eggs in our flower box on the front patio deck. She’s extremely calm when we’re outside grilling, or near the box. She let’s me get very close for pictures. This is the exact place the last nest was back in early July, so I think it’s the same bird. The last two eggs hatched and we watch the chicks grow over two’s and then leave the nest. We never saw them again after that. I hope they did well.

Now about two weeks ago, it looks like she has returned for another round of nesting. She seems very comfortable where she has setup. There is a lot of foot traffic in and out of the house, which is right next to the nest. She doesn’t seem bothered by anyone walking by or spending time on the deck. I don’t know much about birds, and never really have been a Bird Watcher, but I have enjoyed over the last month or so seeing the nest and taking pictures. These pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 5D.

From what I have researched online, the eggs should hatch like the last ones in about two weeks or so. That time should be nearing now, so I’m keeping a lookout for some new mid-summer chicks. I shot some HD video of the last ones, but never put them on the site. I’ll try to put a video together for the site after these new babies come around, and include video from the first round too.

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:
Brown Recluse Spider Ramps Up Anxiety This Morning

Kersten and I Enjoying A Mid Summer Day On The Coast

August 3, 2009 – Kersten and I enjoyed a nice afternoon along the beach in Jupiter, Florida. J.J. has been away the last several weeks visiting his family in Las Vegas, and we decided to just take off for the day and hang around along the coast.

After spending several hours driving and walking around, we took the long drive up US1 to Stuart, FL, where we had dinner at one of our favorite little barbeque restaurants. It was a great day of relaxing and taking in the sights we take for granted way to much. We live in this beautiful tropical paradise of South Florida, and sometimes you just need to stop and check out your local surroundings and enjoy them. It was a nice way to kick off August.

Archived Weather Storm Photography Finding Some Beauties

July 28, 2009 – I love coming across old weather and storm photography that I seem to forget about, or misplace on a drive. The last few days I have been cleaning some Hard-drives and memory sticks. I have found some images that I have completely forgot about and wanted to share a few of them in this post. Most of these weather pictures are either from South Florida or chasing Supercells in Tornado Alley.

Gulf Stream Thunderstorm Complex – South Florida

Organized thunderstorm complex offshore Broward County, Florida back in Spring of 2008. The system was associated with a cold front boundary tracking over the warmer waters of the Gulf stream. I remember shooting a beautiful time-lapse that afternoon of the same scene.

Smoke Plume with Sun Rays – South Florida

During the wildfires of 2007, I captured this scene of a smoke plume backlit with sun rays on a late Spring afternoon in the Northern Everglades. Florida was experiencing a significant drought that year, with widespread wildfires. I filmed more wildfires that season than storms.

Elevated Thunderstorm Downburst Winds – South Florida

This was shot over the Sugarcane fields of west-central Palm Beach County, Florida. It’s a elevated thunderstorm that produced a dry downburst over the young sugarcane. There were at times, several small Gustnado vortices that developed on the front end of this plume of dust. Pretty cool!

Beautiful Eastern Colorado Supercell Thunderstorm

During my Spring 2005 Storm Chase expedition in Tornado Alley, we chased this beautiful Supercell that just developed on the High Plains of eastern Colorado. This storm went on to become a massive classic Supercell thunderstorm as it neared the Colorado / Kansas border. A great day!

Double Rainbow with Hail Falling – Kansas

This angle of the storm was our group approaching a Kansas Supercell Thunderstorm on the backside. The hail shaft wrapped around the backside of the storm, producing a cool double rainbow as hail stones fell across the road. We went on to chase this storm for another 4 hours into the dark.

Large Golf Ball Size Hail Stones – 2004

I can’t remember if this was taken in the Texas Panhandle or Southeastern Colorado. It was just in some of my 2004 files. I do know it’s my hand holding semi-melted large golf ball size hailstones. I do remember dealing with several large hail episodes that chase season and having vehicle hail damage.

More Picture Likely to Come -

I have so many more pictures that I’d like to share, but you can only post so many at a time. I have two more drives to clean through the next week, and I’m sure I’m going to find even more interesting weather pictures, especially some hurricane 2004-2005 scenes from Katrina and Frances, Jeanne, Rita and Wilma.