Was Fay a Fizzle?

Tropical Storm Fay never quite made it to hurricane strength, but she has definitely dumped a lot of water on some parts of the state, and has caused some power outages and some severe flooding. She certainly gave forecasters a fit.

Fay wobbled right along the southern coast of Cuba, so she didn’t get a chance to strengthen much there. Then, she came ashore in south Florida before having a chance to reach hurricane status. Throughout that part of her journey, the various computer models were all over the place trying to plot an expected track. Some took her almost straight across south Florida to the Atlantic, some right up along the west coast, and others bending her out across the gulf toward Alabama and Louisiana.

While not strengthening as much as expected before landfall, she went on to actually strengthen a little bit while over land, and maintained a very definite organization while moving across the state. Once again, confounding the computer the models with some taking her up the east coast and into Georgia, and others looping her out into the Atlantic briefly then coming almost due west back across northern Florida.

Here in Tampa, we had some occasionally breezy conditions, and a few very widely scattered showers. I didn’t get any rain here at my house. So while Fay, luckily, hasn’t caused much damage here in the Tampa Bay area, she has caused some serious flooding along the east coast, and certainly given forecasters and their computer models a real run for their money.