Well we are boarded up and about as ready as anyone can be for an event like this.

I've been here since 1970 and have been through a few of these, but this one has me worried for my fellow Floridians.

Be safe everyone!

Winds have picked up considerably with some strong gusts and rain, but power still on and we are ok.

quote:

Originally posted by jehzsa:
Good news. Around 113 mph winds between Marathon and Key West just before landfall.

Did you evacuate or stay?

quote:

Did you evacuate or stay?

Riding it out.

Been through worse, including the 1993 no-name storm. Told my wife the other day that when I was young and remarkably stupid, I enjoyed driving around near the coast during a hurricane. In my warped logic, if the wind was blowing from the sea, chances were practically nil that I would get hit by a tree branch.

I still don't think that it's going to be as catastrophic as the media forecasts it to be. A bunch of fear mongering going on, as depicted by the report from the Key West station showing 113 mph shortly before landfall which minutes later was reported by TV stations as a Cat 4.

However, the Bradenton/Sarasota area and Pinellas county might get the worse of it.

I still hope that the intensity will diminish as it exits the keys.

Best of luck to all...

Fwiw, Marlon, my pet finch looks so cute in his new raincoat. And the rain hat fits perfectly, though I had to secure it with a couple of paper clips.

68 degrees outside right now on the mountain. Is this a hurricane or a winter storm??

First rain has arrived, along with tornado warnings. Just north of Tampa.

we left our home in Naples, and are up in Alpharetta. heading to Columbia SC next and either up to Maine if our house is uninhabitable or back home via the east coast of FL. have been buying gas cans along the way. we got our family out, left at 2.30 am on thursday morning.

good luck everyone

Not much here yet, but the low barometric pressure puts my Menieres into overdrive, and the low pressures will be here for a long time today.

Thoughts now.

It's being sheared. The west side looks like it's being depleted.

The eye is almost gone. Bodes better for its transit through Florida.

If it stays on its north track, it goes through the middle of the state, right by Clermont and probably exiting around Duval county (Jacksonville).

It's now Cat 2. In about 5 or 6 hours it might be barely a Cat 1 hurricane.

Better outlook for half of the state than yesterday.

Tampa Fox13's Paul Dellegatto called this well, he blasted the NHC the other night regarding the over insistence on the GFS model.

He said Irma would not intensify that well when most others were crying havoc concerning the approach to FLA.

At Piggly Wiggly in Spanish Fort, Alabama. The state park in GA we were at was evacuated. We would go to Publix, but they closed yesterday. Apparently, they ran out of groceries and can't get more because the distribution center in Lakeland, Florida is closed.

The people in Georgia and Alabama have been fantastic. A gentleman and his son stopped by our campsite earlier and dropped off some homemade cookies. They were giving cookies to everyone from Florida.

quote:

At Piggly Wiggly in Spanish Fort, Alabama. The state park in GA we were at was evacuated. We would go to Publix, but they closed yesterday. Apparently, they ran out of groceries and can't get more because the distribution center in Lakeland, Florida is closed.

The people in Georgia and Alabama have been fantastic. A gentleman and his son stopped by our campsite earlier and dropped off some homemade cookies. They were giving cookies to everyone from Florida.

I am glad to hear that. We got a lot of help from out of state after Katrina. Local churches here are sheltering and feeding people with no cost to them.

Local news is reporting that storm surge estimates for Naples/Collier County are coming down. That is fantastic news. Original estimates were 10 to 15 feet.

Been raining steadily here in the Forest City area (sort of a neighborhood between Altamonte Springs and Apopka).

A couple of very brief power blips.

Wind is best described as a brisk breeze.

We had a local tornado warning at around 6:40 pm, warning to expire at 7:00 pm. I wanted to go outside and watch for it, my wife did not thing that was such a good idea.

quote:

Originally posted by Belwolf:
Tampa Fox13's Paul Dellegatto called this well, he blasted the NHC the other night regarding the over insistence on the GFS model.

He said Irma would not intensify that well when most others were crying havoc concerning the approach to FLA.

Yep, he's been very accurate and optimistic for the Tampa area most of the day. We're not out of the woods yet but I did start to relax a bit when Paul called a northern track from landfall in Naples.

quote:

ampa Fox13's Paul Dellegatto called this well, he blasted the NHC the other night regarding the over insistence on the GFS model.

He said Irma would not intensify that well when most others were crying havoc concerning the approach to FLA.

He was fortunate. It is somewhat like stock market prognostication. Everybody got very lucky when the storm degraded over Cuba. I am not supporting the hyperbole you see on CNN and national outlets. Many do not know that are two degrees in the field. One is one Broadcast Meteorology, the other is in Meteorology itself. The NHC did a good job. It is not an exact science.

Still here in Temple Terrace. Just had my first power hit. Just a quick off and on but it took my cable box about 10 minutes to reboot.

Just had my second one as I was typing this post. I may have to go to sleep soon if this keeps up.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

ampa Fox13's Paul Dellegatto called this well, he blasted the NHC the other night regarding the over insistence on the GFS model.

He said Irma would not intensify that well when most others were crying havoc concerning the approach to FLA.

He was fortunate. It is somewhat like stock market prognostication. Everybody got very lucky when the storm degraded over Cuba. I am not supporting the hyperbole you see on CNN and national outlets. Many do not know that are two degrees in the field. One is one Broadcast Meteorology, the other is in Meteorology itself. The NHC did a good job. It is not an exact science.

Yes, he (Dellegatto) said the NHC did and does a great job but he doesn't like basing too much on the GFS model.

Meanwhile we have Trop Force winds just south of Tampa (10:07pm). Power still on. Expecting Cat 1 winds maybe some Cat 2 gusts later on.

You all are still in my prayers!
Good night all and stay safe if you hung around and for those when traveling back.

Gonna get dicey here in Apopka in a few hours. More than "breezy" right now and has been, gusts 40-60 over the past 2 hours. Lots of stuff hitting the roof and my neighbor to the west has an impressive collection of my my shingles.

New track has it going right over top of us in far west Orange County. They're predicting 80-90mph sustained between 2-4am