Tuesday January 9th 2024

For the last several days the weather forecasters have been talking about a cold front arriving today. With each day the level of hype and paranoia climbed. Most of the counties in the state were under a state of emergency and many school districts had called off classes. This morning we had strong gusty winds out of the south as a precursor to the front. It drove the temperature to eighty degrees and a little beyond. It was a very cloudy day and a bit dangerous outside. Sticks, branches and Spanish Moss were falling from the sky with each wind gust.

Around 3PM one of the Tampa TV stations came on the air with full time weather. They provided continuous reporting as the storm front moved inland from the Gulf of Mexico. The entire state was under a Tornado Watch. As the storm front reached land severe thunderstorm warnings and a few tornado warnings were issued. One of the tornadoes would have passed very close to here if it continued for more than a few minutes. All of the storm warnings came up and were taken down within a very few minutes. The heavy rain and wind arrived here around 4:45 and was over within ten minutes. It has rained off and on for the three plus hours since. The temperature went from 80 degrees when the storm front arrived to 60 degrees as it departed. As the storm front continued across the Florida peninsular additional tornado warnings were generated including one in the Orlando area. For me, the storm turned into a none event. You really had to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to have had any significant impact from the storm.

Not knowing what exactly to expect from the weather forecast and not clear on the time line, I decided to stay at home today. I managed to get one walk in during the day. It was a challenge walking around all the debris from the trees and watching for additional stuff that might fall. Since I considered yesterday’s walk lonely, I’d classify today’s walk as deserted. I only passed a couple of people on the trails.