Environment

Dennis’ impact on the Tampa Bay area has been relatively minimal. We have had some strong wind and rain bands pass through, but it has all been moving quite fast, so the overall impact has been limited. We haven’t even had the power flicker here.

They have adjusted the track of Dennis slightly more to the east again, so that means the projected track is even closer to the west coast of Florida. As it stands right, Key West lies directly on the projected path.

The National Weather Service released their 11am advisory. The projected path has been shifted more to the east, as the storm is moving more northwest than west northwest. This seems to indicate that the high pressure is not as strong as expected. The NWS discussion indicates the storm continues to strengthen and organize, and has a very large windfield, particularly on the northeast quadrant.

Not fretting too much about “soon to be” Hurricane Dennis, but it now appears its going to become a very serious Category 3 hurricane.

We’re off and running with the 2005 hurricane season. This is the earliest ever for four named storms. Dennis has just become a named tropical storm.

I still can’t believe we didn’t lose power during yesterday’s visit by Jeanne. It flickered a half dozen times, but always came right back.

I just wanted to get out a quick update. Its about 6pm, and it appears we have survived nearly unscathed. There is still some blustery wind, and its still raining, but I believe the worst is over. Jeanne has been a tropical storm for several hours now, and is moving to the north at about 10mph.

The wind continues to pick up. The eye is about 60 miles away, and looks as if it is finally turning somewhat northward. But we are still going to have some increasing sustained winds.

We’ve watched as Jeanne has tracked much more west than north, and so we are now going to a full-on hit from the hurricane. Their was just a report that we have sustained winds here in Tampa of 51 mph. Jeanne is now down to 85 mph in the eye-wall, which is probably about three hours from being right here in Tampa. It is raining, but not yet pouring. That is anticipated however. The storm is moving fast, so hopefully it will get through here quickly.

On top of a small sink hole out near the street, now here comes Jeanne. With a westward shifting track, we’ll most likely get at best tropical storm force winds, and I’m sure be out of power for some period of time. This is getting old.

After having slammed into the coast of Alabama and the Florida pan handle, Ivan meandered up through the eastern states