Everyone Dew the (Tropical) Wave...

Well, 5 tornado reports yesterday. One of them in Panama City Beach. People seem to react when I say stuff about tornadoes in Florida. It is not actually as rare as it sounds. Interestingly, Florida is ranked number 3 for total number of tornadoes, and they are ranked number 1 for total tornadoes per 10,000 sq. miles.

The state which has the highest number of tornadoes per unit area is Florida, although most of the tornadoes in Florida are weak tornadoes of F0 or F1 intensity. A number of Florida's tornadoes occur along the edge of Hurricanes. ~source

In the United States, there are two regions that get proportionately more tornadoes than anywhere else. Florida is one and Tornado Alley is the other. Florida has a lot of tornadoes simply because it is home to almost daily thunderstorms. In addition, the Florida peninsula is often impacted by several tropical storms or hurricanes each year. When these tropical systems move ashore, the embedded thunderstorms in the rain bands often produce tornadoes. However, despite the violent nature of a tropical storm, the tornadoes they spawn (some being water spouts) tend to be weaker than those produced by non-tropical thunderstorms. ~source

It is important to point out a few things... given the geography of Florida and its peninsula shape, sea breeze initiation is common, and generally produces many water spouts throughout the year, which are not supercellular in nature... as those water spouts move inland, they are considered tornadoes, but they do not usually have the same magnitude of supercellular tornadoes. Another point is that given the differences in population density, tornadoes are more likely to be reported in Florida; whereas, the the plains, where people are spread throughout the region, many tornadoes that occur (though less likely these days with the huge quantities of storm chasers out there) probably go unreported and unseen. Finally, most of the tornadoes that are produced in Florida are not strong or violent, unlike those generally formed in the plains. Another important point is that size does not necessarily dictate strength... Tornadoes are rated by the type of damage they cause, not by their size.

This site is actually a very interesting and comprehensive site regarding tornado climatology. Apparently, on Monday , there was a an EF-0 tornado that touched down in New York.

NEWBURGH ORANGE NY FROM 615 PM TO 618 PM
...AN EF0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN NEWBURGH. THERE WERE 3 APPARENT TOUCHDOWNS BY THE SAME FUNNEL OVER ABOUT A MILE AND A HALF PATH LENGTH AND A PATH

Who knew??

Enough about that... it's Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season... though we still don't have Bertha, we do have an area defined as a Tropical Wave in the south central Atlantic. It's not the time in the season, where activity in this part of the Atlantic would typically develop, and this is no exception. This system is not expected to become Bertha... Did I mention that I visited the National Hurricane Center...? ;O)... speaking of... they let me know that I could take the Virtual Tour of the National Hurricane Center which is available on line... Here's that link (click here). Almost like the real thing, huh? That's how it was presented to me. "A great virtual tour, which is virtually the same as being there in person." Yeah... I found it interesting though, that sometimes, the virtual tour guide sounds like Casey Kasem.

Today, almost the entire plains area has been outlined with a slight risk for severe weather including the threat of discrete cells that could spawn a few tornadoes. There is also a slight risk over in Jeff's neck of the woods... Slight risks for the next few days, actually.

Oops, I forgot to mention something about the Solstice Moon Illusion tonight... check out the moon on the eastern horizon tonight around sunset and you will see that it appears HUGE... just an illusion. Check out the NASA article linked below...Toodles,
~Dewdrop