Nothing To Chase? (3/2)

For the past WEEK, the National Weather Service had some "strong wording" about the "severe weather potential" associated with a strong low pressure system and front that was forecasted to affect the state of FL around March 2, 2009. A day before the "promising" event, SPC issues a slight risk, then the day of the "event", its DOWNGRADED to a "see text", then the "event" turned out to be a 30 MPH wind gust and some moderate rain.

Of course, the SPC "storm reports" for March 2, shown to the right in the graphic below, says "No Reports Received" ... In fact, February 2010 goes down in history as the first month with no reported tornadoes anywhere in the USA since the 1950's! This certainly is NOT encouraging.



The other two images above to the left and middle show the grim effects of the 2009-2010 "El Niño", with some of the coldest weather (for Southern Florida) in a very long time. And, to add more to the lack-of-storms and shivering frustration ... The 10-15 foot high northeast swells THAT NORMALLY accompany strong cold fronts in FL also NEVER happened. Flat surf, too cold for the beach, yes - Even surfers in FL are probably more frustrated than storm chasers! My SeaDoo watercraft sits in the storage - too "cold" to even take that out to enjoy on the water or the lake, which is choked with water weed and dead fish because of the "killer" cold weather since January!

This cold pattern, persisting into March, is not normal. Normally, El Niño causes MORE storms in FL, but this one is very different. This will also result in cooler water temperatures and probably hurt the potential hurricane / storm chase seasons in 2010 - I am not ready to repeat 2009.