6/12/06 DISC: FL

[Doug_Kiesling]

Just blowing past Macon GA to meet up with my chase partner Brian for Tropical SYSTEM Alberto (it could be a cane in the next 8 hours) Brian has been seeing lots of flooding up the coast from Tampa. Target, the FL Armpit from Apalachacola to Cedar Key. Will be refining the target as we go through the night.

For those using Swift WX 2.5 you can follow along with our GPS tracking.

Will be looking for any Chaser Convergence. Collura said he will be racing up this way from his home north of Miami.

Doug
www.HurricanePhotographer.com

 

[Doug_Kiesling]

In Valdosta GA, not much to report here. Just stopped to shoot some street flooding and rain squals and will be heading back south in a couple minutes. This thing is going to be a major soaker.

 

[Jason Persoff]

Had targeted an area south of Jax on I-95 for early evening. Then Alberto slowed to a near halt. Still best dynamics continued to build from the SW with good helicities and onshore flow. Finally Alberto moved a very dense rainband from the south well after midnight.

Actually got up and chased around Jax at 0300. Rainbands had some impressive low level flow and multiple TOR warnings (ironically, my first TOR warnings for the year). City lights provided adequate low-level illumination. Having chased a few rainbands in the past, I was amazed to see intense electrical activity with the TOR storms--occasionally saw 2-3 flashes per second. Tried to localize where the flashes were coming from as felt they might hint at the most intense updrafts. Visually was very humdrum (not too shocking with a TS let alone a TS at night). Now I'm tired and barely sated.

 

[Doug_Kiesling]

We were in Steinhatchee FL in the right front of the storm and saw some good stuff for how tame this storm was. Got some good winds and a dry eyewall on the east side to the point were I was ready to call this tropical storm "Visine" (dry eye). On the west side of the eye the surge picked up and the rains and wind got better.

 

[Bill Hark]

....chased a few rainbands in the past, I was amazed to see intense electrical activity with the TOR storms--occasionally saw 2-3 flashes per second. Tried to localize where the flashes were coming from as felt they might hint at the most intense updrafts. Visually was very humdrum (not too shocking with a TS let alone a TS at night). Now I'm tired and barely sated.
[/b]

Interesting observation. I have chased a number of hurricane-related storms and lightning is usually absent or minimal including storms that are tornado-warned. I also have several videos of hurricane induced tornadoes and no lightning is visible.

Bill Hark

 

[Eric Flescher]

Heard on TWC there were 16 tornadoes confirmed because of Alberto. Anyone catch any of them and were? Hope this is okay to post

Also the latest from the Cobert Report (Comedy Channel) 6/15
"Of course will all that was going on about illegal imagrantsof course the first "Hurricane" would have to be a Hispanic Name (coincidence or not?). There is a movement to call that "stormberro" a " Hispanicane. "

 

[Jason Persoff]

Interesting observation. I have chased a number of hurricane-related storms and lightning is usually absent or minimal including storms that are tornado-warned. I also have several videos of hurricane induced tornadoes and no lightning is visible.

Bill Hark
[/b]

Yeah, no kidding, Bill. I've almost NEVER seen lightning with a rainband. And if I do, it's a rare flash. When we had the 4 canes back in '04 (what a storm year that was...) we had our power go out myriad times and occasionally most of Jax was black--despite multiple TOR warnings, I saw maybe 3-4 flashes of lightning the whole time (and that's with no city light pollution).

This band was odd. And I suspect there may have been some effect of the dry inflow that poured into Alberto over that night (maybe drying out the back end of the rainband leading to enough cooling to increase ice crystals (???)). I've often thought that the dearth of lightning in tropical systems may be due to less ice crystals at altitude due to the significant latent heat from the hurricane. But I have no idea.

Jason

 

[Blake Michaleski]

Alberto also wasnt the most 'tropical' of storms. it started to exhibit extratropical characteristics well before landfall as it interacted with a weak baroclinic zone and ingested massive amounts of dry air from the midlevels. This could have something to do with it.

another notable storm was Hurricane Cindy last year. the feeder band that remained over Dauphin Island, AL had much lightning with it.

 

[mrobinett]

Heard on TWC there were 16 tornadoes confirmed because of Alberto.

[/b]

Yeah, whatever.... :blink:

I did see this guy in Cedar Key on Tuesday, setup look familiar?
He's a "Hurricane Chaser."

 

[Marc Austin]

I did see this guy in Cedar Key on Tuesday, setup look familiar?
He's a "Hurricane Chaser."
[/b]

Mike, I was just about to contact you to see if you saw anything interesting over in Cedar Key. Looks like it was pretty gray, rainy, and not really that windy, but hey, at least you were where The Weather Channel eventually set up, and we all know that TWC is 100% accurate all the time! Right? Actually, once I heard that Mike Bettis, or however you spell his name was down there in Cedar Key, I figured it wouldn't get all that bad.. it's Mike Sidell and Jim Cantorie that you have to look out for. They seem to attract the bad stuff... oh and Anderson Cooper too. Anyway, good to see you made it back safe.. and with a nifty photo of a Hurricane Chaser that looked as though he was just a tad dissapointed. Well at least for him hurricane season has just begun, whereas tornado season is drawing to a close. Maybe the hurricane chasers will get better results than most of us tornado chasers did this year.

 

[Sam Sagnella]

Heard on TWC there were 16 tornadoes confirmed because of Alberto. Anyone catch any of them and were?[/b]

According to the PSHs that were issued, there were 7 tornadoes in the Charleston CWA (6 F0s, 1 F1), 2 in the Jacksonville CWA (2 F0s) and 4 in the Tampa Bay/Ruskin CWA. Several more unconfirmed tornadoes appear to have occurred in the Newport/Morehead City CWA, one of which reportedly hit Atlantic Beach and another Morehead City. The estimate of 16 tornadoes seems quite plausible to me.

Charleston PSH
Jacksonville PSH
Tampa PSH