| Tropical Storm Ernesto in the Florida Keys August 29th - 30th, 2006 by Martin Kucera (c) 2006 - FloridaLightning.com _______________________________________________________________________________________ |
| Tropical storm Ernesto never made it to a hurricane category before making a landfall in the Upper Keys and south Florida just before midnight on August 29th, 2006. For the most part of the day this storm simply looked weak and poorly organized. There was a little hope for strengthening earlier during the day but the maximum estimated sustained winds were presented as 45mph for the most of Ernesto's track over the Straits of Florida and later the Keys. In reality that number seems quite high. This was a heavy rain event with all the characteristics of a tropical system. The winds were minimal for the most of the day and during the landfall. I observed traffic signs flopping heavily in some stronger winds as well as the eerie howling of power lines for short periods of time. The rain amounts across south Florida are going to be great I can imagine. It has been raining for the last 12 hours and the back side of the storm is coming through right now without any signs of letting up the heavy rain. In fact the back side of Ernesto seems a bit more impressive than the earlier part when it comes to wind. |
| The first outer band of tropical storm Ernesto is coming ashore in Islamorada, FL |
| Heavy rain and gusty winds would soon follow the moderate squall of T.S. Ernesto. |
| I could not be any more lucky when it came to intercepting this tropical system as it was right on target for the Upper Keys so I concentrated mainly on finding the heaviest parts of the storm. Early on I picked my vantage points to be able to have access to both bay side as well as the ocean side of the Keys. There is always a good chance for violent waterspouts and lightning activity with tropical systems. Many times you also get more lightning thus you really don't want to concentrate on the force of the winds as a main factor when planning an intercept of a tropical storm. At least it is how I see and plan things. The first outer bands moved through around noon and the radar images already looked quite poor at this point. Nevertheless I did not want to just abort the chase - the storm was in the neighborhood. I was able to notice some good looking updrafts early on but they were way in the distance over the Everglades and later approached Key West and weakened. This is a good time to point out that the outer bands most probably brought the most intense weather. The Bay waters were quite rough and stirred up brown and rain blew almost horizontally for a while. There were couple times I experienced a near whiteout while the worst of the weather was coming through. The only great looking thing during the entire landfall was an embedded strong thunderstorm exhibiting violent rotation. This was the cell that moved over the Florida Bay earlier and produced a short lived violent looking waterspout. By the time it really intensified over the ocean south of the island chain it was already more than 30 miles off shore and covered up by sheets of rain. Amazing how fast the waterspout actually moved. |
| Sad to say, the waterspout was the highlight of the day. I have not been disappointed by this system, however. Depending on what you are looking for when it comes to monitoring or actively participating in tropical systems interception, you might like certain scenarios better than other ones. Lately, some people seem to feel that unless it is a major hurricane it is not worth their time. I guess if you are passionate about storms, don't chase only for money and don't need to travel thousands of miles, we all should take whatever the nature has to offer (especially in 2006 but I am not going to get into that). |
| Heavy sheets of rain are rapidly engulfing waters of Florida Bay just north of the island chain in Islamorada, FL. |
| Tropical storms or even depressions can also be quite interesting as well. Aside from insane amounts of lightning during hurricane Charley approaching Key West, FL in 2004 I will never forget a tropical depression back in 2003 when it comes to electrical activity and tropical systems. During this extremely weak looking and disorganized depression that moved south of the Keys I was able to enjoy and photograph lightning since the early evening till morning hours when a sunrise put a lid on things. With Ernesto I observed no lightning but heard thunder - early on. |
| Conditions quickly deteriorating as another squall gets closer to the islands and the US 1. When driving extra care needs to be taken while crossing numerous bridges in the Keys. |
| This is just about when the Keys experienced the worst of Ernesto. The winds were not a problem at all but at times very heavy rains moved through. It all kind of reminded me of a heavy summer thunderstorm. The photo above on the right is of the most potent squall that came into clear view and produced a short lived but violent looking waterspout later on. |
| Same squall line as the one above only moments later and a couple miles closer. At this time the rotation in this particular part (embedded cell) was quite obvious. My vehicle weather monitoring system indicated shear velocity of 80mph at the time the first photo was taken. Unfortunately it was impossible to get a closer look at this thing. It was literally gone the next minute. So fast it moved off shore I was only able to get several minutes of a decent video of this particular event. So much for another highlight of the day. |
| A couple of "scenic" tropical storm shots. Channel five bridge connects Islamorada and the Long Key. Notice the original and much better looking bridge built by a railroad magnate Henry Flagler in 1920's. The infamous Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 badly damaged the original structure. Trains are no longer used to commute along the island chain. |
| (c) 2006 - FloridaLightning.com |