§       Joe’s Disco Weather Central Time Capsule

 

            Hi everybody and welcome! It looks like the winter of 2002-2003 is going to be a really harsh one with a line up of storms marching across the U.S. from the West Coast. Last weeks storm followed the jet stream through the central part of the country and picked up lots of tropical moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and turned into a major nor’easter. As I write this column, there are at least two more threats to the Northeast over the next 10 days. A lot of this can be blamed on El Nino. Speaking of El Nino, Prof. William Grey released his extended forecast for the 2003 hurricane season. The 2003 hurricane season will run from June 1st till November 30th of 2003. He predicts we will have 12 named storms, 8 of them will be hurricanes. There will be 65 named storm days, 35 of them will be hurricane days. He predicts there will be 3 intense hurricanes and 8 intense hurricane days. The probability for at least one major category 3,4 or 5 hurricane making landfall in each of the following areas are as follows:

1.      Entire U.S. coastline is 68%. The average for the last century is 52%.

2.      U. S. East Coast including the peninsula of Florida is 48%. The average for the last century is 31%.

3.      Gulf Coast from the Florida panhandle west to Brownsville Texas is 38%. The average for the last century is 30%.

4.      There is an above average risk for a major hurricane to make landfall in the Caribbean.

As you can see the 2003 season looks to be very active in part due to the influx of El Nino. These forecasts will be updated next year as the season moves closer. I will update this information as it becomes available.

            Now, on to the Time Capsule.

 

Here are some past National Weather Events.

Now for some local past weather events…

§         December 13-14, 1962 -- Statewide -- Severe Cold Outbreak caused by a huge arctic high brought all-time record lows for December to over 3-dozen cities. Lows ranged from the single digit and teens in north Florida to the 20s central and low 30s south. Lows reached 5 degrees in DeFuniak Springs, 30 in Fort Lauderdale, 22 in Melbourne, 27 in Naples, 12 in Gainesville, 22 in St. Petersburg, and 29 in Hollywood.

§         December 13, l984 -- Santa Rosa Co., Milton -- Tornado damaged six houses and destroyed four mobile homes.

§         December l4, l952 -- north Florida -- Snow and Sleet -- Trace of snow or sleet at or near Pensacola, Crestview, DeFuniak Springs, Quincy, Carrabelle, Tallahassee, St. Marks, Monticello, Madison, Mayo, Live Oak, Lake City, Glen St. Mary, and Hilliard. Frozen precipitation occurred before noon at most points, but occurred in the afternoon at Mayo and Lake City and near Hilliard. Temperatures were above freezing and snow or sleet melted as it fell.

§         December 14, 1953 -- Jackson Co. -- Sleet was reported in Marianna.

§         December 15, 1947 -- Escambia Co., Pensacola -- A Tornado caused major damage to several buildings, injuring four people.

§         December 15-16, l992 -- Martin and West Palm Beach Cos. --High winds caused high waves and beach erosion along the east coast. A 50-year-old beach house on Jupiter Island tumbled into the ocean after sand eroded beneath it.

§         December l6, l974 -- Several small tornadoes touched down in Sarasota, Charlotte, and Palm Beach Cos., toppling trees and damaging some roofs.

§         December l7, l97l -- S. West Palm Beach Co. -- A Funnel Cloud was sighted.

§         December l8, 1929 -- Santa Rosa County -- A tornado struck Cedar Grove, damaging a church and five houses. One woman was injured.

§         December 18, l95l -- Jacksonville -- Tornado caused major damage to roofs of two houses and minor damage to roofs of seven others. -- Evening -- St. Petersburg -- A Tornado demolished a storage shed, wrecked a garage, and caused other lesser damage to buildings and signs. --Evening -- Frostproof, Lake Moody -- Tornado uprooted some citrus trees and damaged the fruit of many others.

§         December 19-21, 1901 -- statewide --Major Freeze with low temperatures of 17 degrees reported at Tallahassee, 19 at Gainesville, 20 at Ocala and 25 at Orlando.

§         December 19-20, l991 -- Broward, Dade, Martin, Palm Beach Co. -- High Winds -- Strong easterly winds and heavy surf pounded the lower east coast. Winds gusted to 44 mph at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport, causing significant beach erosion due to the pounding surf. Parts of A1A were closed as sand blew across the roadway.

§         December 19, 1995 -- Gadsden Co. 1 mile north of Mt. Pleasant --An F2 tornado destroyed a mobile home carrying the two residents over 125 yards.  The men were found four hours later.  One man (50) was dead, while the other, his brother, was severely injured.  Items from the dwelling were found three miles away.

§         December 20, l993 -- Walton Co., Sandestin -- two workers were injured when lightning struck near a construction site.

That’s it for this week’s Time Capsule, I hope you enjoy it. If you have any weather questions or want me to cover a certain topic in the column, please e-mail me at JOESDISCOWEATHER@AOL.COM. As always for the latest in severe and winter weather updates go to JOESDISCOWEATHERCENTRAL.COM! You can also join me every Saturday morning for a free cup of coffee and a free copy of the Hometown News at the Stuart K Mart Garden Center!