Now that Fay is finally done with Florida, or at least she is done with us, I can finally stop posting about her from a personal point of view. I never expected her to do as much as she did, and thought she was going to just hit us and run like every other storm in the past. Had I known that she was going to do everything she did, I would’ve kept my mouth shut and happily prayed for the best.

Yesterday, I had one of my most terrifying experiences of my life. We were upstairs in our bedroom and we were looking out the window at what the storm was doing. A nasty rain band was swinging up over us at a very high rate of speed and it was filled with all kinds of lovely red and yellow. As we stood there watching as the rain got harder and harder and the winds picked up, we noticed the rain start to swirl in the complex.

There is a big tree across the way from us and I mean it’s a big tree and that big bastard got manhandled. The floor started vibrating and I heard the roof start to pop and crack. The power started to flicker, so we ran down stairs and got the kids in the kitchen area since that is the most centered location in our 2 level apartment (we have the top two levels of a three level apartment). Shortly after things died down a tad, a Tornado Warning was issued for our area and just north of us there was a confirmed tornado that touched down. You do the math.

Either way, we feel lucky to still have our apartment intact and more importantly, our family is safe. Not one of the better experiences I’ve had with storms. I’ve seen tornadoes before and I’ve seen the aftermath first hand, but I’ve never had one come over me before. That was the first time, and I sincerely hope that it’ll be the last.

I also noted that I had a video I was going to post for everyone to see a little bit of the rain and winds that we got from Thursday, August 21st, 2008. I’ve just uploaded it to YouTube and you can watch it below.

Tropical Storm Fay’s Rain & Wind

Tags: Fay, News, Tropical Storm, Tropical Storm Fay, Weather

I must admit, I had some trouble sleeping last night. The winds were causing a creepy howling sound between the apartment buildings. I absolutely hate that about storm winds. The eye of the storm passed directly over us, and we got to deal with the western eye wall. We also had 50+mph winds throughout the night.

Lots and lots of rain with minimal flooding. We had minor power outages as well, but for the most part nothing bad. We’re supposed to have more fun today as Fay’s eastern eye wall hits us and she rips through us. I also have some video shot of Fay’s winds and rain which I’ll upload and share courtesy of my wife.

Tags: Tropical Storm, Tropical Storm Fay, Weather

Tropical Storm Fay is currently churning off the eastern coast of Florida in what was expected to be a strengthening session that should’ve put her at Hurricane status. While she has been out there, and she did regain her old 60mph wind speeds, she hasn’t done much else except shower a good portion of Florida with rain.

She is again expected by the weather experts to make her way towards us and hook back into Florida. We finally have gusty winds here, but no rain. This has to be the most lazy storm I’ve had the displeasure of dealing with. Its zigzag all over the state is like she is drunk. The eastern Florida coast is its couch, and it is going on a beer run later today across the state.

Tags: Fay, Hurricane, Tropical Storm, Tropical Storm Fay, Weather

I went to bed last night getting off the phone with a longtime friend of mine. He was worried about Tropical Storm Fay and us. I laughed and he knows I’m a Floridian. I was in Florida for Hurricane Andrew and lived through that. My home town got its ass kicked by Hurricane Charlie. I’m no stranger to these storms, so I’m not all that threatened by it.

I told him that after looking at the doppler, the first real chunks of rainbands should be hitting us around late 5AM to early 6AM. I was wrong. Fay has stalled, and all we’ve had here so far is a bunch of clouds. Not even wind. It’s annoying. I want the storm to come and go so we can get on with our lives. Now they’re talking about Fay lingering on us for a couple days!? Gah. Noo!

Tags: Tropical Storm, Tropical Storm Fay, Weather

One thing you gotta love about hurricane tracking is that nobody knows exactly what the storms are going to do. I read an article saying Fay was weakening, and slowing down. I tell my wife, and sure enough, she says she saw something saying it is strengthening and might arrive sooner than projected. So, take your pick. Either way, we have a lovely likely-to-be hurricane heading our way.

Now the question is.. What are we going to do about it? Nothing. We’ve rarely prepared or felt a need to prepare for a hurricane. Even when we got battered a couple years back, I remember going outside and walking my old dog Captain and getting hit in the head with a roof shingle. Thing was like a Chinese Star, all woosh and such. I actually find the rain from a hurricane or tropical storm nicer than a normal, everyday storm. Tastes better, too.

Rain time is fun time!

Tags: Fay, Tropical Storm, Tropical Storm Fay, Weather

Earlier tonight I was sitting there, talking with my wife about how I’ve heard practically nothing about tropical activity and how the season has been so quiet. She told me to “shut up” and then said “you’ll jynx us!” Shortly after we had our laughs, we checked weather.com and sure enough — Tropical Storm Fay. (Weather.com, AccuWeather.com, and NOAA.gov)

At this time, it is currently projected to run over Florida, and depending on which site of the three I’ve listed you check the projected eye path has it possibly heading right for us. Either way, I think two things of it at this point in time..

1: I hope that it doesn’t hurt anyone, which as of now it’s only projected to become a Category 1 prior to landfall, and..
2: I’m looking forward to at least knowing it’ll rain and storm and being nasty outside.

Living in Florida, the daily storms are often worse than a Tropical Storm. We’re always dealing with “Severe Weather Alerts” with 60mph+ winds, dangerous cloud-to-ground lightning, large hail and tornadoes. It just happens randomly between Noon to 6 PM. I also need to remind my complex to trim the palm tree that is smacking my front window, and to remove the tree behind our apartment that got owned by a down gust.

Ah well. I’ve learned my lesson and shall not ask why things have been so quiet weather-wise again. I’ll be sure to keep this story updated with our personal situation on this subject.

Tags: Fay, Tropical Storm, Tropical Storm Fay, Weather