Fay, Fay GO AWAY!!!

Happy Sky Watch Friday!! Here's my post!!! (Please visit Tom, Klaus, Sandy and Imac's SKY WATCH BLOG (click here or on the logo) to participate in Sky Watch Fridays. It really is so much fun and interesting to see skies all over the world!!! I highly recommend it!) Many of you, especially those of you in the United States, are pretty aware of Tropical Storm Fay, a storm that is dumping historically catastrophic amounts of rain in central and eastern Florida as it spins almost stationary off the eastern coast of Florida. Being that I am just a hop, skip and a jump away from the not-so-sunshiny state of Florida, I am getting the rare pleasure of experiencing the outer convective bands of this sizable stationary tropical storm. Yesterday, we were bombarded with a strong line of heavy precipitation, drenching us with a solid downpour, including some ferocious wind and lightning for good measure. After the rain, I went outside to see this beautiful sight.Beautifully illuminated Cumulus Fractus racing by trying to keep up with the outer band of this monstrous and quite wet Tropical Storm Fay.

Fractus clouds are small, ragged cloud fragments which, usually found under an ambient cloud base, form or have broken off a larger cloud, and are generally sheared by and shredded-looking due to strong winds. Fractus have irregular patterns, appearing much like torn pieces of cotton candy, change constantly, often forming and dissipating rapidly. They do not have defined base.

Cumulus fractus actually looks like a ragged cumulus cloud. Cumulus fractus form on the leading and trailing edges of summer storms in warm and humid conditions. Observing fractus gives indications of wind movements under the parent cloud. A mass of multiple fractus clouds, located under main cloud is called pannus. ~source

Here's a very brief video, showing the cloud movement, pardon the bark by Mini-Dew... she rather enjoyed the echo between the buildings.
Still this morning (considering Tropical Storm Fay has hardly moved), I was able to see more movement in the clouds. Seems this morning, I was perfectly placed to watch the convective band fly by. I had a solid cloud structure moving from the northeast to a south southwest. It was very cool. The video is not great because my camera was trying to focus on these rapidly moving clouds and couldn't quite get a handle on that, but you can see in this brief video how quickly the bands are moving up here.

Back to my Tropical Storm Fay update... the serious catastrophic flooding, as I said, is a huge concern with Tropical Storm Fay. She is dumping tons and tons of rain on an already saturated ground. Many homes are taking in up to 5 feet of water... roads are flooded... farms are flooded... alligators and snakes are swimming in residential area flood waters (please don't let you kids play in this water)... sewage issues... it's definitely a disaster down there.... In line with that... I want to share the CoCoRaHS data with you (to the left here). For those who don't know already...

CoCoRaHS is an acronym for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. CoCoRaHS is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow). By using low-cost measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an interactive Web-site, our aim is to provide the highest quality data for natural resource, education and research applications. We currently operate in many states across the country. If we are not in your state please drop us a line and let us know that you have an interest in participating. This helps us know where a desire exists for the network and where to focus our future expansion efforts.

If you live in the United State (in states that are included in the CoCoRaHS network), you can become a part of the CoCoRaHS network by following the link in my sidebar or by clicking HERE. On TWC, I heard reports of almost 2 FEET of rainfall since Monday in some areas. It goes without saying that areas are dangerously flooding... not to mention, beach erosion is underway. Fay just needs to go away. Unfortunately, she is nearly stationary at this time with ramped up winds of 60mph (now that she got back over water) and a pressure at between 993 and 994mb at any given time. The expectation is that Tropical Storm Fay will get caught up in the high pressure system bearing in from the north and carried off to the west, which would be her 3rd Floridian landfall... depending on when that happens determines if yet another landfall will occur. If she is far enough south, she will emerge in the Gulf of Mexico and possibly make yet another Floridian landfall. If not, she will just continue to drop her moisture wherever she decides to be. Seriously, Fay... go away.

Here's the 11:50 look at TS Fay on radar... looks like the center is beginning to come ashore on a west northwest path...Do my eyes deceive me??? Does anyone else see a clear eye forming? Check it out... Currently winds are slamming into my office building causing creaking noises...

Here is what it looked like outside during lunch hour... fast moving cumulus...

INCOMING!!!!!

4:00PM: They just cancelled school tomorrow for the whole area... UGH! Why?

Have a lovely day...
~Dewdrop