Mmmm....so south of AL

[beachbum_al]

It's heading southwest.

Thanks

[perk]

Yeah that's the same Alicia.

[beachbum_al]

So Alicia went from being a little cluster of thunderstorms to 115mph. Wow!

[perk]

Alicia was the last major hurricane to hit the Houston/Galveston area.

[wxman57]

Yes, Alica started from just such a cluster of thunderstorms. But Alica formed on the trailing end of a weak cold front. Upper-level winds were relatively light over the thunderstorm cluster, allowing Alica to develop.

This is a totally different situation. These storms are being produced by an upper-level low center, and a quite strong one. Upper-level winds across the northern Gulf are in the 50-70 kt range. Not exactly favorable for development:

http://myweb.cableone.net/nolasue/gom.gif

[yzerfan]

Pretty serious overnight thunderstorm here in the Ft. Walton Beach area.

[HouTXmetro]

What? is the synoptic situation similar to how Alicia got started?

[KatDaddy]

Wxman57 just explained it in the above post. Too much shear to something developing in this case.

[beachbum_al]

Condition in South Alabama are cloudy and a mild wind blowing at about 15kts...I am estimating.

I just got off of the phone with my mil in Orange Beach and she said it has been bad down there. The waves are high and it has been raining and lightening. And that is where I am headed this morning.

[tropicsgal05]

The lightening from this mass off shore near the panhandle gave me a lightening show early this morning, my living room completely lit up lol.

[Dean4Storms]

Actually this MCS developed over South Ga and North Florida late yesterday afternoon, It blew through here in Destin, FL beginning last night shortly after midnight producing 38mph gust here at my place and we ended up with 4.48" of rain by the time it ended around 6am this morning.

WE NEEDED THE RAIN BADLY!!

[TampaFl]

Nice view of the Gulf complex & what is left of Chris. Note the outflow boundry moving north southeast of the large complex of storms.




http://weather.cod.edu/analysis/loops/satrgnlloop.master.pl?keywest&type=vis



Robert

[chrisnnavarre]

Really came down here in Navarre at around 2am. Lasted until this morning. My wife was speaking on the phone to her friend in Destin at around 1am and she thought they were having a tropical storm.

[cajungal]

You know what is weird? I was in Destin, Florida exactly a year ago to this date. And a low pressure area developed just to the west of Destin. It did not develop because of its proximity to land. If it was over the water just a little longer, it would of became a depression. It almost ruined our vacation. Rain was non-stop for nearly our first 3 days of vacation. (Luckily I had the condo for a whole week) The rain was so bad that it flooded Destin. And water was almost lapping at the front door of the condo since we were at ground level at the Pelican Beach Resort.

[mikey mike]

Whats bad is we are in a major drought, and we did not get one drop of rain out of it. It wen't offshore from Pensacola Eastward. If the convection continues to hang in there it could get interesting. It has happened before. Example Danny 1997.

We're in the same situation! Although we've had some thunderstorms the past few days we are still in a drought.Could have used this big area of precip.Like you,not one drop has fallen.It's either feast or famine around here and I didn't like the feast last August.

[Brent]

I love the tropics... stuff comes out of nowhere.

[skysummit]

I'm in Pensacola Beach right now. I didn't know what the hell was going on around 2:30 this morning! Lots of wind and one of the longest lightning storms I've ever been in. The thunder was so loud, you could feel it in your chest. One HELLUVA night!

[KFDM Meteorologist]

Something to watch here.

[EmeraldCoast1]

The lightening from this mass off shore near the panhandle gave me a lightening show early this morning, my living room completely lit up lol.

Yes! This complex came barreling by around 0230 this morning and put on one of the most continuous lightning shows I've seen in probably almost two years. Never rained a drop, buy got gusty and was mostly just beautiful. Could hear the thunder rumbling constantly in the distance as the Western most edge of the complex passed about 10 miles to my East.

Question for pro mets: Why is it that whenever a batch of thunderstorms comes from the North and heads South over this area, it is almost ALWAYS a really nasty event in terms of lightning, wind, hail, etc.

[skysummit]

Hey Emerald! I'm in your town right now! Like you said, that was one of the most continous lightning shows I've ever seen. We did get rain here on the beach. The wind was blowing pretty strong...I'd say 30-40mph in gusts, but the lightning and thunder was just amazing!!!