Pine Island Weather Blog

We were lucky enough to capture this lightning strike on the webcam during this afternoon’s storm. Power went out briefly with this strike that occurred 08/10/2009 at ~17:23.

08/10/2009 Lightning Strike

Sure seems like summer out there with the storms building up inland in the middle of the day and working their way westward to the islands. So far we haven’t been on the receiving end of any significant rainfall but you only have to go a mile in any direction to find some good soakers. Hopefully the pattern will stay in place for a while and make a dent in our rain shortfall.

In other news, folks on the Bokeelia end of the island should keep their eye to the blog over the next several days as we’ll have some significant news to announce on our efforts to get some more weather stations in place on the island!

Get ready for the coldest night of the winter so far. While the NWS is calling for temps to remain above freezing for Pine Island three things concern me with that forecast:

1. Temps fell significantly short of the forecast high today meaning we’re going into the evening cooler than expected.
2. There isn’t any real cloud cover to help moderate radiational cooling.
3. Winds have really died down over the last hour.

Wind Speed Last 24 Hours

 All of these factors have me leaning towards a colder than expected night. I’m not expecting a hard freeze but I will not be surprised to see scattered frost in the area. Take care of your plants and pets tonight.

I’ve put a short version of the 09/14 “Orange Storm” up on YouTube. There’s a “music enhanced” version and a no audio version.. The music enhanced version is below:

09/14/08 Orange Storm with Music

A line of storms that caused the issuance of a Tornado Warning in Collier county earlier this morning is fast approaching St. James City. While we are not currently under an official Tornado Watch we are in the portion of Hurricane Gustav that is most likely to generate tornadoes. Keep your ear to your NOAA weather radios today.