charli's Blog

Yippee!!!! We are finally getting some rain... not the normal spring/summer schedules but...  Do not know which board to post this on... Weather? Traffic?  Maybe both.

There are certain rules for driving in the rain... obvious is to drive slower, avoid areas that flood, pull into a parking lot if the rain is coming down so hard that you can't see! 

Just because you drive a ATV/SUV does not mean that you can drive the way you do.  Just because you can drive through high water at a high rate speed does not mean that you should.  Think about others.  The other day I drove through an area that the streets were flooded.  I was new to the area and did not know that the road flooded.  I slowed down and rode in the midde of the road, as I was trained, pulling over when on cars came  toward me.  The drivers of the ATV/SUV's?  They sped down the road and the splashes blinded other drivers.

And... do not drive with your flashers on!  The flashers are meant to be used when you are at a stop... I got caught in one of Sunday's storms and was driving on Waters when I saw at least 2 drivers with their flashers on! 

 

My pic is an example of my question.  (If you turn your head to the left you can see a FL native walking up the coast.... The animated radar was really a blast to watch!)  The day I captured the radar image we had been told that there was no chance of rain.  It poured while I drove home from work!

On Saturday morning I woke up early, 6:30, to catch the weather.  The approaching front was depicted as a solid blue line going northeast of us... coming over us was the red and blue line... "The front will not effect us.  We will see some areas hit the upper 80's to low 90's on Sunday."  In the last weather segment of the morning the line had turned to the solid blue line with the front coming across us and "seasonable temps in the low 80's, low humidity, and morning temps in the 60's, and no rain".  I woke up to rain!

FL does not go by the "April showers bring May flowers" saying.  Yet we've had a wet April.  I love the lower temps... and the savings on my electric bill, but... what awaits us in the next few months.  All the new equipments is tauted as making future forcasts more accurate... but so far the foreasts have been off more often than on. 

Paul and I had this joke last fall about which one of us was causing the rain to miss where we lived, but downpours all over the rest of the county.  It would be pouring a few blocks all around us, but we didn't get a drop. 

I am afraid of what the upcoming hurricane season will be like.

pics were great but does anyone remember what today is... the 31st anniversary of the Tampa Blizzard!  I just moved so I can't find the pics I took... I will post them when I find them... but this city shut down!  In Brandon, our back yard looked like what I remembered as a child in Ohio... my 4 year old daughter cried, the dog went outside, stopped in his tracks, and walked backwards in his tracks after looking around at the strange view.  I have cleaned up the story that I usually tell people of the first site of snow that morning ;-)

If I remember correctly, it was the first time schools were closed for a "snow day".

I was thrilled at today's 5PM forecast. Image seeing the actual path of the hurricane plane and the readings!

Channel 13 has always been the best for weather, but now, no one can top them.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that Chris stays away... although the rain would be nice... to cool the temps down.

So... how to you feel about this hurricane season? As storms spring up, I will be posting my feelings. I welcome other opinions. I have a great track record of predictions. I use many sites, Channel 13 for one. I will never forget when Katrina had her eye on New Orleans. Channel 13 had reported that the eye was just making land fall. Channel 8 and Bay News9 was reporting that it was still miles away from landfall!

That's it for tonight. I'll be back when we have some weather news.