Photo – GOES Weather Loop 2/5/12
# 6122
The Atlantic Hurricane season runs from June 1st through the end of November, but over the years we’ve seen a number of off-season tropical weather systems develop – albeit rarely in February or March.
Today, NOAA has their eyes on a disturbance off the western tip of Cuba that has a slim possibility of intensifying before it reaches Florida.
Early models drag it up and across the peninsula of Florida over the next couple of days, bringing with it some much needed precipitation.
Model Credit – SWFTMD
There appears to be very little chance that this system will amount to much, but history records at least one February Tropical storm.; the famous Groundhog Day storm of 1952.
Photo Credit –Wikipedia
Sporting winds of 50 MPH when this system came ashore near Cape Sable, it did little damage, but surprised a lot of folks with its offseason arrival.
While not of tropical origin, the far more destructive `Super storm’ of March 1993 brought a 10 foot surge tide out of the Gulf of Mexico, pushed by hurricane force winds that battered the coast for 12 hours.
As it raked up the eastern seaboard it dumped record amounts of snow from the Florida Panhandle to New England. Along the way it claimed more than 300 lives and inflicted more than $6 billion dollars in damage.
That storm is a vivid memory for me, as it saw me spending 12 very tense and cold hours aboard my 32-foot sailboat, trying to keep her from being damaged or sunk as the winds and tides battered us.
A not-so-gentle reminder that disasters can occur with little or no warning, and that severe storms can show up even when the calendar says they shouldn’t.
Preparedness is truly a year-round responsibility.
For more information on how to prepare for disasters or emergencies, the following sites should be of assistance.
FEMA http://www.fema.gov/index.shtm
READY.GOV http://www.ready.gov/
AMERICAN RED CROSS http://www.redcross.org/
A few of my preparedness blogs you might wish to revisit including:
In An Emergency, Who Has Your Back?
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if this little-storm-that-could turns into anything more than the answer to some future meteorological trivia question.
