Close, but no cigar

I reconnected with my husband's cousin yesterday, which reminded me of one of my favorite days in weather. It was during a trip I took with my wonderful groom down to Miami for his cousin's wedding. Of course, being in the place where he grew up, he took me to all the places he remembered from when he was a child, and we explored some of the geeky tourist attractions. It was after visiting the National Hurricane Center and while we were exploring Key Biscayne, that I discovered something spectacular in the sky and begged him to "PULL OVER!" with jaw dropped and arm outstretched, pointing toward the sky. There it was, clear as day (not a clear day), a powerfully rotating column of air in the sky!!!Storm Report for June 13, 2008
It was actually reported as a water spout that went ashore. Thanks to a ridiculous amount of curves and palm trees, my view of the best part was obscured, but I saw it reaching down further than in the picture. Unfortunately, this is all I got. What a day though!!! The only other times that compare would be early on while sitting by a field with my boyfriend back in 1989 watching as the skies churned and dropped funnel clouds, 3 tornadoes were reported on that October 1st, causing damage even as close as outside the video store we were holed up in during the worst of the storm.

Conyers-area historical tornado activity is slightly above Georgia state average. It is 89% greater than the overall U.S. average.
OCT 01, 1989 030 1806 F2 247
OCT 01, 1989 031 1830 F1 247
OCT 01, 1989 032 1844 F2 247

The next time was also in June, but it was in 2007, when I was with Peg and Mel and the crew trying to chase naders. We came across a wicked low precip supercell near Murdo, SD, which dropped several needle funnels as we sat and watched. It never dropped anything more substantial for us, but the same system did produce a very picturesque tornado over the Badlands, which we had just passed.

Ahh, yes, SDS is bad.
~Dewdrop

GUESS WHAT WE SAW?! ANYONE HAPPEN TO CHECK STORM REPORTS FOR FRIDAY?????

Have I got a story for you! I don't have much time, as we are planning some chaser convergence with Jeff as we had out of town, but I have an exciting story to tell you about Friday.

First off, I have a boatload of pics from this incredibly awesome visit to south Florida, and I am not able to share those right now, but I am going to share this story... since I finally have an Internet connection. It started on Friday morning, when bf and I headed to the National Hurricane Center to take some pics outside, since we knew that we wouldn't be able to tour it during the season, you know, outside of the off-season, not on the Tuesday/Thursday 10-2 tour schedule, but we went in anyhow to try, and the security guard didn't know what to do with us... uh, you're not supposed to be in here... lol. More pics of that in a later post... but, some beautiful convection was building even while we were at the Tropical Prediction Center.So, that, in and of itself was pretty awesome!!! I got some great shots at the NHC and then, we headed on to Key Biscayne, at this point not having seen weather reports in a full day and not having access to anything weather... and apparently, no one saw to let me know that I was under a TORNADO WARNING at one point (thanks to Chris Collura for telling me that when I talked to him this morning to see about hooking up, which he can't... darn). Well, it just so happens that the tornado warning produced!!! Well, even better than that is that the tornado warning produced a water spout reported by local law enforcement... No, no, even better than that is that I saw the BEAUTIFUL cone funnel at the tail end of the water spout as it made its way inland. We were traveling up the main strip in Key Biscayne in moderate and very cranky horn-blowing traffic, looking for some place to eat, when I look up ahead of us along this very ridiculously tree covered drive, and there it was smack dab in front of me, seemingly out of the blue, just a little spin-off forming in the sea breeze... a beautiful grey solid cone funnel piping down (well, actually piping up), which was actually dipping down pretty low at the point I saw it, but I could see at that point that the base was well above land. I exclaimed to bf, "IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS?!" He said... "No way. You're imagining things." I shouted, "PULL OVER, IT'S A CONE FUNNEL!!!" By the time we got a spot where we could see it and I could shoot pics, it was dissipating, losing its beautiful cone shape, but you can clearly see it in my shot, and then, it was gone. Just like that!!! I was able to snap only two shots of what I now know was a dissipating water spout that had gone TORNADO.Who says Friday the 13th is unlucky. I think my chase partner is a magnet for this stuff!!! :O)

Anyways, a HUGE thank you to Chris Collura who let me know that the cone funnel I was telling him about was actually a tornado just moments before!!! That rocks!!! Here is the storm report showing the tornado report on Miami Beach, you know the one that we saw!!!... and here is the local storm report. :O)

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MIAMI FL
317 PM EDT FRI JUN 13 2008

0203 PM TORNADO 3 NNE MIAMI BEACH 25.85N 80.12W
06/13/2008 MIAMI-DADE FL LAW ENFORCEMENT

MIAMI BEACH POLICE OFFICER REPORTED A WATER SPOUT MOVING ONSHORE NEAR 64 STREET. WATER SPOUT LIKELY DISSIPATED AS IT REACHED THE SHORELINE WITH NO DAMAGE REPORTED.

Until I get home from this beautifully picturesque place, when I have more time to blog all about my wonderful trip, I leave you with yesterday's sunset.It's a beautiful day!!!
~Dewdrop