Making Hurricanes Go Away February 23, 2009

  Four months ago this week, residents in South Florida were anxiously watching the tropics as Hurricane Ike formed in the Atlantic Ocean. For two agonizing days, the Palm Beaches was ground zero in the National Hurricane Center’s “cone of uncertainty.”
    Thankfully for us, a large high-pressure system steered Ike south of Florida. Unfortunately, [...]

Learning the Hard Way December 23, 2008

   It is called a mandatory evacuation. It is issued by local government agencies telling residents that they need to get out of harm’s way.
   Here in South Florida, mandatory evacuations are common when a hurricane is expected to make landfall. Twenty-four to thirty-six hours before the storm is anticipated to strike, local governments, working [...]

When Bad Things Happen to Good Forecasts December 23, 2008

Flooding and mudslides in Southern California, blowing snow with wind chills approaching 50 below in North Dakota and more than one million people without power in New England thanks to an ice storm.
  Yea, it was a good week to be in South Florida.
  I’m guessing that you liked our weather over the past [...]

A Dry and Chilly Winter? November 13, 2008

  It’s a dry heat. That’s how some describe the weather in Phoenix, Arizona during the summer months when the temperature routinely tops 100 degrees while the humidity is nearly non-existent.
     While Phoenix and the rest of the American Southwest are famous for its triple-digit-trouble, some might be surprised to learn that the region does [...]

A Chilly and Dry Winter? November 13, 2008

  It’s a dry heat. That’s how some describe the weather in Phoenix, Arizona during the summer months when the temperature routinely tops 100 degrees while the humidity is nearly non-existent.
     While Phoenix and the rest of the American Southwest are famous for its triple-digit-trouble, some might be surprised to learn that the region does [...]

The Great Waco Hail Stone October 30, 2008

A six-pound chunk of ice that smelled a little like fish and looked a lot like quartz made big news in York, Pennsylvania last week. That’s because the frozen concoction fell from the sky, through a York woman’s roof and slightly injured her while she slept.
   Mary Ann Foster was glad to be alive [...]

Monday Milestone: No Named Storms In Tropics September 16, 2008

Monday, September 15, was a bit of a milestone for those of use who keep track of the tropics. It marked the first day in exactly one month that no named tropical systems were roaming around the Atlantic Basin. No depressions, storms or hurricanes. No big headaches like Fay, Hanna, Gustav or Ike.
It doesn’t mean [...]

Ike Catches All By Surprise September 4, 2008

No one saw it coming. Ike’s rapid intensification (from tropical storm to Category 4 hurricane in 12 hours) caught everyone by surprise, including forecasters at the National Hurricane Center.
 
They had anticipated a strengthening tropical cyclone and, in fact, had predicted that Ike would become a major hurricane. But that intensification was expected to be [...]

National Weather Quirks August 7, 2008

I’ve been scratching my head today over two weather events that occurred earlier in the week. On Monday might, a line of severe thunderstorms rolled through the Chicago area. And, on Tuesday morning, Tropical Storm Edouard made landfall along the upper Texas coast.
At first blush, you would think the tropical storm would have been the [...]

Big Bad Bertha July 7, 2008

All this week we will be watching the future movement of Hurricane Bertha, the first hurricane of the 2008 season. You’ll find lots of information about this storm here on our web site, including the latest forecast from the National Hurricane Center, satellite photographs and the latest statistics.
It is not the first time a “Bertha” [...]