Hurricane Earl, a powerful hurricane!

Earl is a very powerful category 4 hurricane, with an intensely low pressure. Hurricane Earl is a force, and people all up and down the east coast should be on guard and ready just in case his course moves westward. Even in the best case scenario, impact from Hurricane Earl will be felt with waves, winds and rip currents. It is possible that Hurricane Earl will move over the Outer Banks as a major hurricane. Then, there is a chance he could move over Massachusetts. Be watchful and vigilant.Incidentally, we also have Tropical Storm Fiona, and another wave behind her that could become something. I think Fiona will suffer in Earl's wake, but who knows for sure?

Stay tuned!

~Dewdrop

Next up, Hurricane Earl takes center stage!

My, oh my… Hurricane Danielle did take the turn and is now headed out to sea, where she will only impact the Titanic expedition and other ship traffic. She passed far away from the US, leaving us with strong rip currents, which resulted in numerous water rescues and at least one death, as a swimmer was carried out in the current. At the strongest, Hurricane Danielle was a category 4 hurricane, and she is now losing her tropical characteristics as she soars into the frigid northern Atlantic. Hot on her heels though, with must less impactful patterns, is now Hurricane Earl. Already Hurricane Earl, a strengthening (though already strong) category 2 storm, is forecast to strengthen after leaving its impact on the Lesser Antilles. The concerns now are for the east coast of the United States. Apparently, each model run puts Earl further and further west, making an east coast landfall more and more likely. I know TWC has plans to be in Boston. Unfortunately, hot on the heels of Hurricane Earl, is yet another tropical wave with a 90% certainty of development into something over the next 48 hours, and behind that, yet another wave. It’s a parade of tropical action.

Have a beautiful day!
~Dewdrop

Hurricane Danielle, a category 4!!!

Well, there you have it... a 1,2,3,4,5,6 punch.  We've got very powerful category 4 storm in the central Atlantic, which is forecast to take a turn to the north, so it shouldn't make a huge impact on the Atlantic coast of the US, except with rip currents and increased surf.  Of course, soon to be Hurricane Earl is a whole other story.  Unfortunately, it looks like the patterns will bring Earl further south making him more of a threat to land, which is not good news.  He is also forecast to become a major hurricane, and if he impacts land... it could be bad.  Additionally, they have expressed good odds of the wave behind Earl of becoming a tropical system during the next 48 hours, and behind that are a line of waves over Africa!!!  If Earl doesn't get us, there is a chance one of the others might...

 

~Dew

The Majesty of His Power

SKY WATCH FRIDAY time! Thanks to Dot and Tom, never forgotten founders of this great event. Come on, come fly with us!

Thanks to hosts: Klaus Sandy Sylvia Wren Louise Fishing Guy

As I was saying, hurricane season is not over till it's over. We've now got a 1,2,3 line up of tropical action, all siblings off the coast of Africa barreling across the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Danielle, now, once again a category 2 hurricane after some interaction with dry air has rebounded to be quite a storm, now showing indications of eyewall development. She is actually forecast to become a major hurricane, but I would expect her to become a fish storm, staying out to sea. Unfortunately, her little brother, Tropical Storm Earl, hot on her heels, is also forecast to get close to major hurricane strength, but he is expected to take a more southern track, which makes him a contender for some US action. I can almost hear the headlines... "Goodbye Earl!" "Earl's Gotta Die!" What a storm to impact the US... sigh. The third system, still just is wave (an impressive wave!), is hot off the coast of Africa, but some are already talking Fiona...It looks pretty impressive to me!

Tuesday was a crazy day for me. I had a wonderful afternoon excursion over lunch with my wonderful groom, and we went and explored in the jeep some! It was yet another great adventure for the two of us. We saw some really interesting things along the way including crews working to break down some rail cars that had de-railed. I had never seen that before, so it was really neat. Then, I went to the doctor’s and got some icky news about a test he wants to run. I’ll survive it, but I am not excited about it. As I was leaving from Wally World, someone backed into my van… bumped in the side door. It’s only cosmetic… no one was injured and the mechanics of the door were unaffected, but seriously… what a day! I had a great meeting at church after that, but then, when I went to pick up Mini-Dew from practice, the sky had a hint of mammatus clouds popping. Of course, I stuck around out there, shooting a few pics until they were no longer visible. The pretty much fizzled out, just in time for sunset. Doesn’t that figure? I went in to get Mini-Dew and when I came out… KAPLOW!... and then it followed me home!!! What a spectacular demonstration of God's awesomeness. He has a beautiful way of encouraging me, in the perfect way. I love my little love letters from God! Wasn’t it sensational?!

Have a mammatus-ful day!
~Dewdrop

Danielle reaches category 2!!

Just a brief Danielle update… sure enough, Danielle gained hurricane strength over the course of yesterday. She has quickly now, strengthened to a category 2 hurricane. Hurricane Danielle is way out there in the Atlantic and sort of meandering her way across. She doesn’t look all that impressive to me. Interests in Bermuda and the fools doing the Titanic robot project (during hurricane season, duh!!!) should take notice, but really, she could do anything in that amount of time. Most of the models do present her as a fish storm.
Unfortunately, hot on Danielle’s heels is yet another tropical wave off of Africa, which is looking ripe for action.Much of its precipitation is over the Cape Verde Islands, and it is trying to organize as I type. The National Hurricane Center-Tropical Prediction Center has got a 90% likelihood of tropical development for this area of low pressure.

IT APPEARS THAT A TROPICAL DEPRESSION COULD BE FORMING

So you see how quickly things can change. Unfortunately, complacency may have gotten too strong of a grip on the American coastline in the meantime. As I’ve said before, it only takes one!!! Be on guard, people. Just because it hasn't happened, doesn't mean it won't.

Have a marvelous day!
~Dewdrop

Another day, another adventure

Well, like I said, it’s not over till it’s over, and here we are with the soon-to-be Hurricane Danielle, breathing down our necks, taunting us with wonderment at where she might set her sights. She has rapidly intensified, and is expected to be upgraded to a hurricane during the next 24 hours. The current trajectory sets her on course for Bermuda, but there is so much distance and time between now and then, that it’s safe to say that ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN! Tropical Storm Danielle is not too far off the coast of Africa, and as we’ve seen with storms of the past, she can go anywhere. I’ll keep an eye on her and keep you updated.

Friday, while I was coming home from work for some yummy fried green tomatoes that my wonderful groom had cooked up after stopping at the farmer’s market a couple of towns over, I had to stop to admire some swelling cumulus and some great cloud iridescence. Cloud iridescence is one of my favorite cloud phenomena with the clouds taking on an appearance of a puddle of oil, with the swirly rainbow-like appearance. It was very cool, so I decided to try and bottle both up… LOL.
Over the weekend, we decided to take the kids on a great adventure. We drove to a relatively nearby adventure park complete with go-carts and laser tag. You could even feed alligators, if you’re into that kind of thing. Along the way, my wonderful groom was sweet in stopping at some beautiful views. I was ready, camera in hand. We had a great time with the laser tag, which was my absolute favorite. We had a truly wonderful time! Here are some pics from that trip.
Have a beautiful day!
~Dewdrop

It ain't over, till it's over!

I have heard much ho-humness regarding this year’s hurricane season. TWC is acting like it’s a lost season. Some chaser friends are reminiscing about days gone-by.

We are just now entering the peak of hurricane season. It is not terribly common to have significant activity in June and July. Unfortunately, our memories return to 2004 and 2005 and use that as a the basis for comparison and judge that the season is virtually over. The season is not over folks, and please realize that ANYTHING can happen. So, we’ve had a couple of years with no real US impact… what a blessing!!! The people of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts should breathe a sigh of relief and use that money saved to prepare for the ones that don’t end up missing them.

Do you realize that Hurricane Andrew, the third most powerful hurricane to make landfall in the US, formed in mid-August?! That’s right, you know, where we are right now… major hurricane, catastrophic hurricane, which made landfall in the US and devastated that region. It only takes one. Let’s consider last year, 2009, we had 9 named storms that year. At this time last year, we were on Hurricane Bill, which thanks to God, missed the United States. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a very powerful category 4 hurricane because it very much was. Unfortunately, we did still have a US death related to Hurricane Bill up in Maine, closer to where landfall did occur. We are already looking at 3 named storms this season. At this point, we are looking to the tropics, and some are thinking “What a boring hurricane season!”… “Boy, were those forecasters off their rockers or what?!”… “El nino? HA!” Well, I say, it ain’t over till it’s over. Stay tuned.

As I type a nice big wave is about to eject into the Atlantic off the coast of Africa. I think we might just have ourselves Danielle, and anyone’s guess where she might be headed.

Have a great day!
~Dewdrop

We've got rotation!

What a day yesterday was!!! It started out like normal... a little work around the house, headed down to the church for a work day. Then, I joined up with my wonderful groom, to head out of town for Tallahassee for our market adventure. Well, before we were able to get out of town, we ran into a little thunderstorm action. Well, better than that... we ran into a ROTATING WALL CLOUD!!!! Of course, we did the only thing we could. We chased that bad boy, and we got into position to let that really awesome structure pass right on by. If you look at the series, you can see the rotation. (If you are on my Facebook, you can click through the pictures fast and see the rotation clearly!) I took video, but it's terrible, and I am terrible with video anyway. I much prefer pics. These pics are zoomed out all the way. This is how close we were to it!! We could feel the inflow of the storm, sucking all the air in to it. That's experiencing weather! We were in the perfect spot!











Of course, I was in heaven. I hadn't been on the computer all day, so I had no idea what the weather looked like. I hadn't seen any radar and am still utilizing a stupid phone for the time being, so I called into VA Mike and AL Mike to get some information about what we were looking at. They both saw a notch in the radar and an indication of broad rotation. DEW-yah! I did call into into the NWS to report the rotating beast, but it did dissipate, and they never warned it, but I experienced it, so it made my day!!! It was SO CLOSE to the ground!!!

***Incidentally, if you ever see anything like this, get indoors, lowest floor, in your safe place. It could potentially drop a tornado and be extremely dangerous.***

Have a beautiful day.
~Dewdrop

I love damaging winds! :)

SKY WATCH FRIDAY time! Thanks to Dot and Tom, never forgotten founders of this great event. Come on, come fly with us!

Thanks to hosts: Klaus Sandy Sylvia Wren Louise Fishing Guy

I got the funniest email from a good storm chaser friend and member of the Southern Weather Brigade that literally cracked me up. We are a strange group of folks, very interested in weather and the spectacular power and surrounding beauty of God. We are blown away by it, so to speak. It can be a little disturbing to some... Anyways, the email came from Storm Chasing Mikey, in response to a “Lucky Dog” message I sent to him regarding a severe thunderstorm watch he had just been issued. I have to show you, because in all my geekiness, I could lose you describing it.
Incidentally, I love damaging winds too, so today, I decided to share with you pictures of my FAVORITE damaging winds experience. This was a shelf cloud near Murdo, SD, on June 6, 2007. This storm produced one tornado and blew over a tractor trailer traveling down the interstate. A shelf cloud is an arcus cloud that is associated with and attached to a thunderstorm, and it is where outflow winds (straight line winds) are generated within a thunderstorm, called a gust front. (See? Geekiness) In this case, the outflow winds raged around 65-75mph or greater. The shelf cloud was the most ominous one I have ever seen, and the wind was… AWESOME! It was a total grey out with the sand that was carried in it. In fact, I snapped a shot at the worst of it. See? This was a wonderfully memorable day for me, even if we missed the ONLY tornado generated during this High Risk day. I’m not bitter.

Have a day that blows you away!
~Dewdrop

Bieber Fever

Well, my wonderful groom and I witnessed a lovely rainbow traipsing across the sky on Friday night. It was a full bow, but I especially loved where it was playing with the clouds.
Aside from that, a special treat for Mini-Dew and her cousins, their terrific moms took them to the Gwinett appearance of JUSTIN BIEBER. (Insert outrageous screaming here). It was last night, and I am still recovering. It was a long drive up, and a way too early drive back. I am such a cool mom! The concert wasn't actually all that bad. It was LONG, but I had a great time with my sister-in-law.I have also defined Bieber Fever... the craze hitting tweens and young teens and some really sicko moms everywhere:

Bieber Fever-The sickness you get when you hear Justin Bieber's name too much.

~Dew

... and then, there was tonight...

DEW-YAHHHH!!!