Hurricane Andrew 15 Years Ago Today, Midwest Storms

A Date South Floridians Always Remember - August 24, 1992

Hurricane Andrew 15^th Anniversary Today

Things are quiet in the tropics early this morning after such a busy past week with category 5 Hurricane Dean in the Caribbean, but 15 years ago today, in the pre-dawn hours, Major Hurricane Andrew, a category 5 monster slammed into South-Dade County, Florida. Today marks the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, one of the most destructive hurricanes to ever hit Florida and the United States. Hurricane Andrew is the second most destructive hurricane in U.S. history, and the final of three Category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the United States in the 20th century. Andrew caused damage in the northwestern Bahamas, southern Florida south of Miami, and south-central Louisiana. You can read the full history of Andrew here.

Spark In Interest of Chasing Hurricanes

I was 18 years old at the time of Andrew and I was living in Broward County. I was not chasing hurricanes yet, but I was very into chart tracking them, and my early years of learning tropical cyclone meteorology. I’ll always remember staying up all night and waiting for Andrews winds to come ashore and watched live on TV the insane video being shot in Miami. I was not where the core eyewall path of Andrew came ashore (about 30 miles north), and I only saw lower end category hurricane winds, compared to the very intense 160mph winds in South-Dade County. It’s hard to believe it’s been 15 years since this major Florida hurricane event, and I can remember it so clearly as if it was recent. All the recovery and clear up after Andrew, working with friends in Homestead, FL cleaning up and help some move out of the most severely damaged area’s.

Remembering and Thanks

If you lived in South Florida back on August 24, 1992, you along with many others, including myself, have a piece of Hurricane Andrew that will be always with you in some way. Here’s to remembering those lost that early August morning, and those that helped so much to rebuild and recovery beautiful South Florida.

Very Interesting Lightning Video From Chicago

I received a nice email from Chief Meteorologist Amy Freeze, with Fox News Chicago early this morning, concerning some lightning video shot yesterday in downtown Chicago. She submitted a video link to some pretty cool and impressive lightning repeatedly striking the antenna of the Sears Tower. No kidding, this video shows some crazy lightning repeatedly striking the antenna over and over. Great Stuff! Watch Lightning Video Here

This August has been a wet one in the Midwest with another round of severe storms passing through this afternoon and evening. This latest storm system included wind gusts measuring up 80 mph, extremely heavy rainfall and impressive lightning. We’ve had reports of widespread wind damage and flooding across the Chicago metropolitan. During the storm we captured some pretty impressive video of lightning from this storm repeatedly striking the antenna of the Sears Tower.

Thanks Amy for the great video link! The Midwest has been dealing with a lot of severe weather and severe flooding lately. There are flood watches and warning widespread still this more over a large portion of the Midwest as heavy rains continue. The significant flooding continues and more is expected as we move into the weekend. If we only could get some of the heavy flooding rains from the Plains and Midwest down here in the Southeast.