Prospero

Sanibel had its strongest gust of the day just now. Winds are picking up here in Pinellas County, still sub-TS for sure. It appears Idalia has a tail that will whip us late tonight and tomorrow morning.

Idalia is making pretty pictures. I'm glad it is not going up Tampa Bay as we were concerned about yesterday.

Busted my butt for two or three days to be able to endure an all night storm and a few days with no electricity. Now I have electricity and I'm a week ahead of deadlines.

I'm not finding them on SailFlow. Where should I look?

Starts on Francis Bacon's birthday, January 22.

From a friend in England this morning:

This Blue Moon?

I keep waiting for some serious Idalia winds on SailFlow and right now south east Florida appears to have stronger winds than the Gulf Coast. Are those wind speeds due to Franklin?

For Gulfport, Florida which will have some water in town by tomorrow morning, if this camera is still Live that means there is less than a foot or two in the store where the internet connection lives a half block from Boca Ciega Bay: I hope we do not get more, but with high tide there will be a surge on some level. We might have a calm sunny morning with several feet of ocean in town.

Weather Channel has been in the background noise here for a couple days. They had a really cool AI/Drone animation of a 6ft storm surge here in Gulfport showing our little town that floods every TS and Hurricane. Now they are doing Cedar Key with a 9ft surge! One of my storm forecast factors is where the Weather Channel goes, the storms pass by. LOL

We've had two bands; 35 mph gust and sideways rain on the first for about ten minutes, and now a 31 mph gust and light rain. We'll get more, but standing outside right now it feels soooooooo great after a hot ass summer with very few thunderstorms. I love the feel of a tropical system, at least when it is not destroying everything.

Drinking beer and will make a pot of coffee later to experience Idalia all night. I've been waiting for this night since we got our electricity back on after Ian knocked it out here for a few days last year. Here in Gulfport, FL until this morning we were very concerned that we were on the inside edge of the target of a Major Hurricane. Now we are relaxing, hopefully not prematurely, that we'll enjoy some needed rain and very cool winds to watch. My friends who have businesses downtown might have a bit of a storm surge flood, but we should fair out well again. Lucky again in Tampa Bay.

How did I forget Irene!! UGH

If it rains, we'll have a hurricane! LOL

Friday should be a beautiful day In Key West.

I may be missing a few hours at a time, but has anyone brought up that "I" storms tend to be remembered; Ike, Irma, Ian, and so on?

If she has a place to stay higher up near by, she should be ready to go. If she needs to leave the County, sooner the better as traffic starts to back up and that SUCKS. Finding a hotel is probably already a challenge. Possible the tide will be sucked out during the day early tomorrow with some offshore winds creating a false sense of security, but once it wraps around it can be like a tsunami coming in.

Pinellas County evacuation map below. Notice the areas in white not in evacuation zones; near the Gulf coast is some of the "highest" land on our old sand bar. https://thegabber.com/update-7-idalia-evacuations-in-pinellas-begin/

In Pinellas County distance from the coast is not what counts, it is the Zone Map. I live five blocks from Boca Ciega Bay, but am about 15ft up in elevation. If we get a surge up to our house, much of Pinellas will be under water, maybe even from the Tampa Bay to the Gulf is some areas way inland.

Last year on the morning Ian hit Florida Tampa Bay was in the center of the cone. Folks in Sanibel Island and Ft. Myers were relaxing thinking it was going to miss them to the west.

What pilot wants to land in TS strength winds plus turbulence flying through bands? I'd say TPA closing on the day a storm is predicted to be in the area is reasonable.

Workers living in Zone A or B need to prepare which leave the airport understaffed and risky.

Agnes in 1972, I was 11 and this was my second hurricane experience. I remember our favorite seafood restaurant was destroyed on Treasure Island. We had 5ft breaker waves in our driveway in the Pink Streets of St Petersburg after my Mom decided not to evacuate for some small storm. I remember the news calling it a 10ft storm surge.

Oh, it is going to happen soon. I just had lunch on the water at a Marina in South Pinellas County and even though pleasant right now, everybody knows we will not be eating lunch anywhere in the area tomorrow.

Nice sunset right now on Cozumel: