A wet, stormy weekend though with plenty of sun prior to the storm's arrival. Rainfall on my yard totaled more than 2.5" on the Southside. Lightning & wind did a number on power lines & a few trees around the First Coast. A viewer near University & Terry Rd. sent me the photo below showing a neighbor on the roof of her home inspecting damage to the home from a fallen tree. Problem is -- according to the person that sent the photo -- the "sweeper" was up on the roof while there was still lightning nearby. If you can hear thunder, stay indoors!
A funnel cloud developed offshore of Mayport Sun. Here's the observation from the automated reporting station:
KNRB 291952Z 10005KT 6SM -TSRA SCT038CB BKN050 OVC150 24/20 A3011 RMK FUNNEL CLOUD E03 AO2 SLP197 OCNL LTGICCC E TS E MOV E P0011 T02390200 $
The observation reports the funnel clouded ended at "03" or 3 minutes after the hour....in this case 3:03pm.
As for the weather pattern unfolding this week...we'll see some subtle changes but still daily chances for showers & storms. First, for Tue...some drier mid & upper level air is working into the Southeast. We'll be on the edge of this drier air which will cover much of the Northeast half of the U.S. So thunderstorms will still occur Tue. but should be more scattered across Northeast Fl. & isolated over Southeast Ga. Wed. through the rest of the week & into the weekend winds will become southeast. We'll still have lots of atmospheric moisture so afternoon showers & storms will develop but will have a tendency to move inland
on the southeast winds with much of the activity west of I-95 for most of the afternoon. The onshore winds will, however, mean the chance for some showers, possibly a few thundershowers overnight near the coast & from I-95 to the beaches in the morning. So the daily round of widespread afternoon heavy showers & thunderstorms of the last few days will become more scattered & not so easy to time.
While driving home from working out Sat. morning, I heard on talk radio the hosts mentioning the flooding in the Midwest. One of the hosts: "there's no doubt in my mind it's global warming." (She repeated this twice). Not so fast! This is relatively small scale -- Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois & Missouri were hard hit by record flooding which is now spreading down the Mississippi. To blame such an event on global warming is as ignorant as blaming "Katrina" on global warming. It becomes convenient to blame (hype) every bit of "unusual" weather on global warming (yes, the Earth is warmer than 30 yrs. ago). Remember: climate is an average of every day wild swings in weather. The "average" weather really isn't average at all! The radio hosts then went on the our economy & how it's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. "The media is making it sound a lot worse than it is". Hmmm...interesting -- see global warming!
