Warmth arrives followed by a day of tornadic supercell activity
The day Megan, Michael and Thomas left, the wind shifted to the south east bringing warm weather ...
... and blowing "schools" of jelly fish into the inlet.
It was warm and sunny enough for a 39 km ride up the beach and along the river.
However, the following afternoon, the skies turned threatening as a cold front moved in causing many tornadic supercells (rotating storm cells up to 40,000 feet high that can spawn tornados). Tornadic activity commenced before 4 PM at Flagler Beach and reached New Smyrna Beach just after 5 PM - note how the skies darken looking to the north from Castle Reef.
The local TV stations switched to "tornado coverage" and plotted the storms as they progressed street by street. This storm came through just south of New Smyrna Beach airport and swept out to sea over Smyrna Dunes Park with only minor wind damage. A number of residents at Castle Reef came out on the walkway to take photos of the passing storm.
[The tornado warnings continued through the night (interrupting the BBC news) with two at roughly 3 am and 4 am as storms crossed Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. The following day, the TV networks showed pictures of houses without roof tile and lanais blown over in Cocoa Beach. Two semi rigs were blown over on the interstate blocking traffic. All tornados were "EF 0" strength (the weakest strength for tornados).]
All told, the tornado warnings lasted over 12 hours as supercell after supercell swept across Florida.
... and blowing "schools" of jelly fish into the inlet.
It was warm and sunny enough for a 39 km ride up the beach and along the river.
However, the following afternoon, the skies turned threatening as a cold front moved in causing many tornadic supercells (rotating storm cells up to 40,000 feet high that can spawn tornados). Tornadic activity commenced before 4 PM at Flagler Beach and reached New Smyrna Beach just after 5 PM - note how the skies darken looking to the north from Castle Reef.
The local TV stations switched to "tornado coverage" and plotted the storms as they progressed street by street. This storm came through just south of New Smyrna Beach airport and swept out to sea over Smyrna Dunes Park with only minor wind damage. A number of residents at Castle Reef came out on the walkway to take photos of the passing storm.
[The tornado warnings continued through the night (interrupting the BBC news) with two at roughly 3 am and 4 am as storms crossed Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. The following day, the TV networks showed pictures of houses without roof tile and lanais blown over in Cocoa Beach. Two semi rigs were blown over on the interstate blocking traffic. All tornados were "EF 0" strength (the weakest strength for tornados).]
All told, the tornado warnings lasted over 12 hours as supercell after supercell swept across Florida.
Comments
When the winds are onshore from the warm south, the jelly fish just float into shore in large numbers. Just why they mostly ended up in the inlet as opposed to being scattered along the beach front is a mystery to me.
We had another cold front blast in over Sunday night and Monday morning. Once again, radio news coverage was interrupted twice at 3 and 4 am to issue tornado warnings for the Cocoa Beach area.
Really unusual weather patterns this year with strong warm fronts pushing out the cold and strong cold fronts pushing out the warm air. Almost every day is windy.
Dad