Hi everybody and happy Halloween!! Your trick or treating forecast for Halloween looks fairly good although there is a slight chance of showers. The highs will be in the low 80’s and a low around 73 . The lows will be closer to 70 if you live in Indian River county.
The tropics remain stable with only one area to watch in the Western Caribbean. There is an area of unsetteled weather that is being monitored for signs of development. If any development occurs here, it will be slow to occur. Tropical depression Nichlas has finally dissipated and lost its tropical characteristics. Elsewhere, there is no tropical storm development expected. Remember, hurricane season still lasts through November 30th.
With all the cooler weather, now is the time to start getting your yard looking good for the holidays. Using colorful plants is both an easy and inexpensive way of achieving this. One of my favorites is the Rose bush. Roses are not really all that hard to grow and maintain. One important factor in purchasing your rose plants is to buy plants that have been grown in Florida. When available, the Dr. Huey rootstock is an excellent choice. In fact, 95% of all roses grown in the United States come from this rootstock. These roses will thrive in all types of soil conditions.
Once you have picked your prize, it’s time to have fun and plant. You want to plant your rose in a sunny location that gets at least 6 hours of direct sunlight. When you dig your hole, make it 2 times as wide and 1.5 times as deep as the root ball of the plant. Use a soil mixture of 1 part peat humus to 2 parts of original soil. You can also add a small amount of bone meal to this mix. Position the plant in the hole so that the root ball is at the same with ground as it was in the container. Try to disturb the roots as little as possible. Tap the soil lightly and water in. Fill in with soil mixture so no air pockets remain around the root ball.
You now are on your way to a successful rose garden. Next week I will cover some tips on rose care to keep them healthy. Enjoy the beautiful weather and happy planting!
Now, on to the Time Capsule…..
October 30, l967 -- Escambia Co., Pensacola -- A Tornado moved through West Pensacola damaging between 550 and 600 buildings. Forty-four people were injured, five required hospitalization.
October 31, 1958 -- Manatee Co., Palmetto -- A tornado damaged four homes north of the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport. A hotel was also heavily damaged. Four people were injured.
October 31 l960 - l030 - Lee Co., Sanibel Island - A tornado moved across the island and demolished a small marina. An employee of the marina was killed.
October 31, l973 -- Pinellas/Hillsborough Co., Largo --A tornado damaged about l75 homes (mostly trailers), a school, and shopping center
November 1-3, 1956 -- entire east coast -- A Tropical Depression that moved north out of Cuba on October 31st and made a loop east of Florida on the 1st through 3rd brought high tides and heavy surf to much of east Florida. Extensive property damage and beach erosion was reported from Jacksonville to Neptune Beach. Many beach roads and oceanfront properties were undermined at various points by pounding surf.
November 2, l971 -- E. Sarasota - Funnel cloud reported.
November 3, l968 -- Escambia Co. -- Tornado crossed the extreme northwest part of Escambia Co. Florida doing little damage, however 18 people were injured as homes and trailers were destroyed across the border in Saraland, Alabama.
November 3, l987 -- Monroe Co., Key West -- A thunderstorm wind gust of 55 knots was reported at Boca Chica Naval Air Station.
November 4, 1935 -- south Florida -- The so-called "Yankee Hurricane" struck Dade County from the northeast. Winds were 75 mph in Miami with a storm surge of 6 feet. The storm exiting into the Gulf of Mexico on the lower southwest coast north of the Keys. It recurved back toward Florida on the 6th and dissipated off Tampa Bay on the 8th. Nineteen deaths were attributed to this storm.
November 4, 1988 -- Lee Co., Fort Myers -- Tornado destroyed two homes, severely damaged seven, and damaged 109 others to a lesser degree. Eight cars and three boats were also damaged. About 80 Royal Palms were blown down along a scenic street.
November 04, 1996 -- Palm Beach County, Palm Beach -- one person drowned in a rip current. East winds were near 25 knots, and seas 6-9'.
November 5, l988 -- morning -- north and central Florida -- Severe Thunderstorms and Tornadoes -- Madison Co. -- A tornado destroyed six homes and damaged l0 others near Lee, killing one woman. Other tornadoes hit Santa Rosa Beach in Walton Co. and Fort Meade in Polk County. Severe thunderstorm winds damaged roofs, trees, and power lines in Levy, Citrus, Putnam, Volusia, Osceola, and Polk Counties.
November 5, l994 -- Palm Beach Co., Riviera Beach -- Rip Current -- Four children on a church field trip were caught in a strong rip current at Ocean Reef Park. Three were rescued uninjured while the fourth, a 6-year-old male, was rescued, but had stopped breathing. He was revived and transported to a hospital in critical condition. He recovered enough to be released the next day.
November 6, l993 -- Pinellas Co. -- A park ranger spotted two small waterspouts off the north end of Egmont Key.
November 7, l979 -- Palm Beach Co.-- A funnel cloud was observed briefly over Palm Beach Inlet.
Here are some National past weather events…..
October 31, 1965 -- Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was deluged with 13.81 inches of rain, which brought their rainfall total for the month of October to an all-time record of 42.43 inches. (30th-31st)
October 31, 1987 -- Halloween was a wet one in the southwestern U.S. Heavy rain in southern California resulted in numerous mudslides. Weather-related auto accidents resulted in three deaths and twenty-five injuries. Mount Wilson California received 3.14 inches of rain in 24 hours. Yakima Washington reported measurable rainfall for the first time since the 18th of July. The 103 day long dry spell was there longest of record.
October 31, 1989 -- Halloween night was a soggy one in New England. Showers in the northeastern U.S. produced more than an inch and a half of rain in six hours at some locations. An invasion of cold arctic air brought an abrupt end to a week of "Indian Summer" type weather in the Great Lakes Region, and brought snow and subzero wind chill readings to the Northern Plains. In Colorado, Alamosa was the cold spot in the nation with a record low of two degrees above zero, and a Halloween night storm brought 3 to 6 inches of snow to the Front Range, and 5 to 10 inches to the nearby foothills. Icy streets around Denver the next morning made for a rather spooky commute.
November 1, 1861 -- A hurricane near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, battered a Union fleet of ships attacking Carolina ports, and produced high tides and high winds in New York State and New England.
November 2, 1987 -- A dozen cities, mostly in the Ohio Valley, reported record high temperatures for the date. Record highs included 83 degrees at Paducah Kentucky and 84 degrees at Memphis Tennessee. Temperatures reached 70 degrees as far north as southern Lower Michigan. Showers and thundershowers over southern Florida, associated with a tropical depression, produced 4.77 inches of rain at Tavernier, located in the Upper Florida Keys.
November 4, 1927 -- A great Vermont flood occurred. Tropical rains deluged the Green Mountain area of Vermont causing the worst flood in the history of the state. Torrential rains, up to 15 inches in the higher elevations, sent streams on a rampage devastating the Winooski Valley. Flooding claimed 200 lives and caused 40 million dollars damage. The town of Vernon reported 84 deaths. Flooding left up to eight to ten feet of water in downtown Montpelier Vermont.
November 4, 1988 -- Thunderstorms developing ahead of a fast moving cold front produced severe weather over the Tennessee Valley and the Central Gulf Coast States during the afternoon and evening hours, and into the next morning. Thunderstorms spawned nineteen tornadoes, including eleven in Mississippi. The last of the nineteen tornadoes killed a woman in her mobile home in Lee Florida. A tornado in Culbert Alabama injured sixteen people, and caused two million dollars damage. Thunderstorms also produced baseball size hail in Alabama. Unseasonably hot air prevailed south of the cold front. McAllen Texas was the hot spot in the nation with a high of 102 degrees.
November 5, 1961 -- Strong Santa Ana winds fanned the flames of the Bel Air and Brentwood fires in southern California destroying many homes. At 10 PM the Los Angeles Civic Center reported a temperature of 74 degrees along with a dew point of 5 degrees. On the 6th, Burbank reported a relative humidity of three percent.