2009 Hurricane season?

**Rich Z** · 03-31-2009, 11:52 PM

Connie and I have only been living here in north Florida for just over 17 years now, and certainly not long enough to have seen a whole lot of precursors to hurricane seasons. However, one thing that I have noticed (or at least think I have) is that every year we have had an especially wet March and April, we have had a fair number of hurricanes actually make landfall in Florida. Not sure if it's a sign of the way the upper steering currents in the atmosphere are working or not, but it seems to me that during the drier Springs, a lot of the tropical storms got turned away because of fronts that were pretty low into Florida, helping to turn them northward and then out to sea. During the years with landfalls, that front system was up much higher into the mainland of the USA and didn't have any effect on those storm tracks. So more of them hit Florida or crossed over into the Gulf of Mexico.

Anyway, I hope I am wrong about this, because we are getting pounded by rain the last several days, and it brought back memories of some of those storm years we've had.

Heck, if someone can find historical data relating to what I am mentioning above, I'd be interested in seeing it to see if I am just completely off base or not.

Quite frankly, I'm thinking a nice sturdy garage that can withstand winds of 150 mph might be a real good idea for us.

Shadow · 04-01-2009, 12:41 AM

Rich,

I don't think a couple of days rain would be considered "pounded."

Heck, the aquifers are so low it's not funny, lakes and stream beds are way down and rivers are below normal

We need the rain and with what we've gotten thus far as a precurser to hurricane season, I wouldn't sweat it at this point

(God! I hope I didn't just jinx us

)

LS2POWA · 04-01-2009, 12:54 AM

I dont know about your areas, but I was reading the local newspaper couple days ago and they were talking about the current water situation...and all the important water people agreed this area is doing quite well. They were only shy of 3ft of water in one major area from being full I guess(memory has eluded me). Of course they also mentioned more rain wouldnt hurt..

Kinda glad I bought a big suv with the rainy season coming up...the last major rain storm I drove through was a costly repair getting the ecu to work again, even though according to local GM dealer ecus never get wet when driving through I guess deep puddles. Turd burglars they are.

98 softtail · 04-01-2009, 01:14 AM

Rich, this is kinda weird... I was just talking to a friend the other day and I mentioned that "usually in years of a dry spring, most of the nasty weather heads up the Gulf or in from the East". We are having a very dry spring down here.

Batten Down the Hatches.

,

**Rich Z** · 04-01-2009, 03:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow

Rich,

I don't think a couple of days rain would be considered "pounded."

Well, I'm at ground zero with the rain up here, and if the rains we are getting aren't "pounding" then I don't know what is. When we get a good 3 inches of standing water in our driveway in about 15 minutes, THAT is a pounding!

And btw, the rain is POUNDING on the roof of my house at this very minute....

**Rich Z** · 04-01-2009, 03:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 98 softtail

Rich, this is kinda weird... I was just talking to a friend the other day and I mentioned that "usually in years of a dry spring, most of the nasty weather heads up the Gulf or in from the East". We are having a very dry spring down here.

Batten Down the Hatches.

,

I think it all revolves around the jet streams and where they are located. When they are further south, they direct the storms away from Florida and accordingly bring the rains further south. When they are more northern, then the south is dry and northern Florida gets the rain, and the storms aren't steered away from us and the Gulf of Mexico.

Shadow · 04-01-2009, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rich Z

Well, I'm at ground zero with the rain up here, and if the rains we are getting aren't "pounding" then I don't know what is. When we get a good 3 inches of standing water in our driveway in about 15 minutes, THAT is a pounding!

And btw, the rain is POUNDING on the roof of my house at this very minute....

Well maybe you could direct some of that pounding down here....it's dry as a powderhouse for the most part.

Kap142 · 04-01-2009, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow

Rich,

I don't think a couple of days rain would be considered "pounded."

Heck, the aquifers are so low it's not funny, lakes and stream beds are way down and rivers are below normal

We need the rain and with what we've gotten thus far as a precurser to hurricane season, I wouldn't sweat it at this point

(God! I hope I didn't just jinx us

)

The other day I had two walking catfish stop me and ask for a drink of water

**Rich Z** · 04-01-2009, 12:26 PM

It's been raining up here SOLID for the past 24 hours. VERY heavily much of the time. Going to be great for the bamboo shoots due to come up, but it will be a week or so before we'll be able to get any of the vettes down the road. I understand there are flood watches or warnings in effect in the area with some roads bordering or crossing streams closed already. We get a rain like this every few years here this time of year. Once the stream on the north end of our property flooded the road almost up to our driveway. Fortunately the house stays high and dry.

vett boy · 04-01-2009, 03:29 PM

According to my mother who is 95 and a Florida native ,Hurricanes we're much more frequent in the 20's and 30's.Florida was much wetter and almost tropical .The family had productive orange groves as far north as Platka and a freeze was very rare.They had a large farm outside of Homestead and water was never a problem.