This evening, Tropical Storm Cindy is churning in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, southeast of Houston. Its counterclockwise winds are raking the Gulf and pushing a plume of tropical moisture into the Southeastern U.S.; so far, the major track of this plume has been across southern Mississippi and Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, producing torrential rain and widespread flooding in those areas. Unfortunately, the potent but slow moving storm is expected to pump a great deal more moisture into the Southeast before it dissipates and an approaching cold front will draw much of that precipitation into the Southern Appalachians.
Here on Longboat Key, we have been relatively untouched by the tropical storm though rough surf and strong riptides are affecting most of the Florida Gulf Coast, especially from Sarasota to the Panhandle. We have experienced steady south winds, rising temperatures and intermittent thunderstorms over the last two days as the outermost bands of Cindy pass offshore.
Another tropical system is brewing in the Eastern Caribbean but its fate and path remain uncertain at this time. We'll likely be back in the Heartland before other storms threaten this region but hurricane season has just begun and will persist into early November. Perhaps we'll meet up with one of nature's heat-machines later in the year (see Tropical Storm Dynamics).
