Weather, Storms & Hurricane Blog

Florida Thunderstorm Chasing Remains Active - Heading Out Today

I really can’t believe how active the storms have been in Florida the last week or two. All last week, we were in a summer time like pattern, with active sea breeze storms each afternoon. I have chased pretty much every afternoon all over Southern and central Florida for the last week, and now this weekend continues with active weather with a series of short-waves helping to enhance storms along with daily sea breeze boundaries. There are no complaints from me on any of this, and I have bagged some great video, time lapse, lightning, hail and flooding scenes over the last 10 days.

Yesterday, central Florida was active with strong storms, and I was out filming convective time lapse scenes, with animated rain curtains, sun rays, and mammatus. Then overnight, a fast moving squall line / gust front associated with a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS), raced through all of central and South Florida. About 2:am ET, I awoke to very strong winds, heavy rains and lightning. I went out and just watched the squall move through while sitting on the patio. The wind surge behind the boundary was quite impressive, and we picked up more rain.

And The Active Thunderstorm Pattern Continues Today

Today, the MCS has moved offshore into the Atlantic near the Bahamas, and the air mass is already in recovery mode. Winds have returned southerly, and the high level clouds have moved out, giving way to full hot sun that now is increasing the instability for today’s storms expected this afternoon. Expected sea breeze boundaries and outflow boundaries from the Gulf convection, along with some upper-level support will help set the stage for more strong to isolated severe storms this afternoon and evening. I have already cleared my day, and plan to head out by 1pm local.

I’d like to edit together some of the 20 different time lapse scenes I have captured over the last week into a music video for the site, but I seem to have little time each day with all the active weather. Maybe by mid week, things look to slow down, so I’ll have more time to edit up some video. All and all, it’s been great to have all this active weather, and decent rainfall so early in the season. Big change from the 2007 spring season.

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