Christine Hudnall

Found original link through Dew’s site, and decided to check it out - lookin’ more organized to me.

What do you think, eh?

Navy/NRL Tropical Cyclone Page

Yup, Tropical Depression Two is now TS Bertha.

11:00PM Update (070308) lists the following:

Sustained winds: 45mph

Central Pressure: 1006mb

Located: 13.4N / 27W

Movement: W at 14mph

GOES Eastern Atlantic Visible Image - Tropical Storm Bertha - 1815 UTC, 03 July 2008

ZCZC MIATCDAT2 ALL
TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM
TROPICAL DEPRESSION TWO DISCUSSION NUMBER   1
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL   AL022008
500 AM EDT THU JUL 03 2008

THE STRONG TROPICAL WAVE AND SURFACE LOW OVER THE EASTERN ATLANTIC
OCEAN HAS ACQUIRED ENOUGH ORGANIZED CONVECTION TO NOW BE CONSIDERED
A TROPICAL DEPRESSION.  SATELLITE IMAGES INDICATE THAT A STRONG
BURST OF CONVECTION HAS PERSISTED FOR OVER 12 HOURS NEAR OR JUST
WEST OF THE APPARENT CENTER OF THE SYSTEM.  BANDING FEATURES ARE
ALSO BECOMING MORE PRONOUNCED IN THE NORTHWESTERN PART OF THE
CIRCULATION.  THE INITIAL INTENSITY OF 30 KT IS BASED ON A QUIKSCAT
PASS FROM LATE YESTERDAY THAT SHOWED SOME RELIABLE 25-30 KT WINDS.
IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT MOST GLOBAL MODELS...ESPECIALLY THE
GFS...SUGGESTED THE POSSIBILITY OF GENESIS IN THIS AREA OVER A WEEK
AGO...A REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT.

MIDDLE-LEVEL RIDGING IS STEERING THE STORM TOWARD THE WEST-
NORTHWEST...ABOUT 285/8. THIS RIDGING GETS STRONGER DURING THE NEXT
COUPLE OF DAYS...WHICH SHOULD CAUSE A FASTER FORWARD MOTION BY LATE
TOMORROW. GLOBAL MODELS ARE IN GOOD AGREEMENT WITH THE TRACK UNTIL
THE SYSTEM POTENTIALLY REACHES A BREAK IN THE SUBTROPICAL RIDGE
ALONG ABOUT 50W-55W AT THE END OF THE FORECAST PERIOD. THE MODELS
THAT SHOW THE STRONGEST REFLECTION OF THE CYCLONE...SUCH AS THE
GFS/HWRF/GFDL...TURN THE DEPRESSION MORE TOWARD THE NORTHWEST...
WHILE THE UKMET/ECMWF MODELS KEEP A WEAKER TROPICAL CYCLONE ON A
WEST-NORTHWESTWARD TRACK. THE OFFICIAL FORECAST IS CLOSE TO A BLEND
OF THE FIVE MODELS ABOVE BUT JUST A SHADE TO THE LEFT OF THAT
CONSENSUS.

VERTICAL WIND SHEAR IS FORECAST TO REMAIN LIGHT FOR THE NEXT FEW
DAYS NEAR THIS SYSTEM...SO THE BIGGEST LIMITING FACTOR ON THE
FUTURE STRENGTH OF THE DEPRESSION IS THE COOLER WATERS AND MORE
STABLE AIR IN ITS PATH. AFTER ABOUT 24 HR ON THE NHC TRACK...SSTS
DROP BELOW 26C AND STAY BELOW THAT THRESHOLD FOR A COUPLE DAYS.
THEREAFTER SSTS WARM SLIGHTLY AND MOST GLOBAL MODELS FORECAST AN
ENVIRONMENT THAT WOULD FAVOR SOME INTENSIFICATION. THE OFFICIAL
INTENSITY FORECAST REFLECTS THIS SCENARIO...SHOWING STRENGTHENING
AT THE START AND END OF THE FORECAST PERIOD AND NO SIGNIFICANT
CHANGE IN BETWEEN WHILE THE SYSTEM IS OVER THE COOLEST SSTS. THE
SHIPS/GFDL MODELS ARE A LITTLE MORE BULLISH WITH THIS
SYSTEM...MAKING IT A HURRICANE WITHIN 5 DAYS. 

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

INITIAL      03/0900Z 12.6N  22.7W    30 KT
 12HR VT     03/1800Z 13.0N  24.5W    35 KT
 24HR VT     04/0600Z 13.8N  27.2W    45 KT
 36HR VT     04/1800Z 14.7N  30.0W    45 KT
 48HR VT     05/0600Z 15.8N  33.3W    45 KT
 72HR VT     06/0600Z 17.5N  40.0W    45 KT
 96HR VT     07/0600Z 20.0N  46.5W    50 KT
120HR VT     08/0600Z 23.0N  51.0W    55 KT

$$
FORECASTER BLAKE

NNNN

Wouldn’t you just know it - a brief tornado touchdown in my town, not just my county, but my town, and do I get a picture of it? No! I could just - oh I don’t know, growl at someone.

From what we heard, there was supposedly two tornadoes spotted. One in Sebring, and another coming into Highlands County from Desoto County. I’ve not seen any verification of the second one, but the first one did briefly touchdown out in Spring Lake.

I didn’t get to see it, not for lack of trying though. What I did see though was some beautiful rotation right above my house. Nothing became of it, but it was cool and a little scary to watch.

I so need to get updated video camera and a data card for laptop…

Meanwhile - out in the far Atlantic, there is a wave coming off coast of Africa that is being watched.

Just thought I would share this great (to me!) resource that I found and have been thrilled with.

It is the NWS Jetstream Online School for Weather.

Just a few of the things that I like about it are:

• I can learn on my time schedule, even in the middle of the night!
• I can print out certain parts or all the lessons, whichever way I need to at that time.
• I can stay in one section for as long as I need to, to understand something. No rushing!
• There is a quiz for each section. I take it twice, once, before I start learning about the section to see what I know and what I don’t know, and then again, after. You really get to see how much you’ve progressed!
• I can learn at my own pace. Hmmm, think I mentioned that already. ;)

Just wanted to send out a FYI -

I’ll still be posting and you can still comment, but things will be looking slightly around here, while I work on the site.

Most things that I will be working on, you might not even notice, because they deal behind-the-scenes, but yet are vital to the site working - correctly! That is the key, sure it worked before, but ‘under the hood’ it was terrible, and I blame myself for not writing my own themes! Instead, I’m using themes that others have written and while they said they were valid, they weren’t well-formed. And yes, it is important. At least to me. So, rewrites are in order and some new things will be used to. :)

Here is the catch though - I cannot remember how to test on Apache. Yes, I know, stupid, but, it has been awhile. So, I have to muck up main site while I clean, fix and test. Hopefully, everything will still be working correctly, if not, holler!