Claudette

[slomotion]

I watched the Red Sox lose (again) yesterday afternoon and turned the TV off around 5:00 PM. During the game the news crawl showed some tornado warnings for the Panhandle, but I never heard of Claudette (or any precursors) until this morning after she made land fall.

Claudette spun up into a named storm out of pretty much nothing in the eastern Gulf. I can recall this happening in the Bahamas and sometimes the western Gulf, but I don't recall seeing this happen near Tampa Bay before. Anyone seen something like this in the eastern Gulf before?

[Cheechako]

Claudette was on the "radar" last week....

[slomotion]

Damn - I guess part of getting old means I'll have to start watching the Weather Channel - probably more exciting than the Red Sox lately. Sure wish I had my old SSB and my old boat for that matter.

[Cheechako]

yea, I do the same thing, tend to forget to keep track and then get surprised... but then I'm not aboard now....

[dubW]

We are watching "Bill" verrrrrry closely.

[Cheechako]

I heard this am that Bill is predicted to turn East...havent checked the charts though...

[Reality Check]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Claudette was on the "radar" last week....

I would like to know where this showed up!

No local, national or private weather site had this on any list as a potential system until just prior to it being called a depression on Sunday morning. All the national and local experts are calling it a Pop Up storm that occurred so fast no one had been expecting it.

What we were expecting was a front moving south that was to cause rain for us. In its place we got informed Sunday AM we would have a depression or Tropical Storm coming from the South. A total 180 in forecast. Even at the major military base at Tampa, no one was aware of the system until Sunday AM.

If you have documented evidence of it showing up on radar, I think a lot of professional weather people both military and civilian would like to know about it. Including me and I watch the weather locally very closely and have numerous state/ national and international sites I monitor and also have Weather Receivers both at home and office that alert when anything like that is noted by the National Weather Service.

[Cheechako]

Hi , I didnt mean "Radar" specifically, I meant "awareness". You know like "gee that one was flying under the radar". Someone posted on this forum both Claudette and Bill last week. Also were on the front page of my MSN opening page on I believe it was Friday.... Are you saying it wasnt on the HWC?

[slomotion]

Obviously, if I were cruising on a sailboat, I would have used different sources and I'm sure there were much better ones which would have tipped me off. But, Sunday morning the local newspaper (central Florida) forecast for Pensacola was: chance of afternoon/evening thunder storms and SE winds 5-13 kts.

[s/v Jedi]

Claudette is a nasty one. She took us by surprise in 2003 (as a tropical storm) right halfway the Mona passage... 6 hours earlier, all that was reported was a weak tropical wave with maximum 20 kts wind.

I hope we get a bad enough Claudette one day so that they discontinue using that name!

We started looking differently at tropical waves from then on. Not that it helped us much, we had two hurricanes since that...

cheers,
Nick.

[Cheechako]

Tropical Storm Claudette Threatens Fla. Panhandle

MELISSA NELSON, Associated Press Writer

POSTED: Saturday, August 15, 2009

I'm trying to dig some of it up but it's hard to find past statements on line... seems they jump forward... You are right though, it's amazing how little info there was.... the above is out of the houston newspaper...

[Reality Check]

Sorry Cheechako still think you are way off base.

First Tropical Storm Anna of season was named Saturday 16th, it was a depression well prior to that

Year's first tropical storm forms over Atlantic | Reuters

Claudette "Popper UP" Sunday

Deep Into Season, 3 Storms Finally Form - Times Topics Blog - NYTimes.com

and the most reliable source and documented history is:
: Weather Underground Which shows it was not on anyones "radar" until 9:00AM GMT Sunday

We on the Gulf Coast typically keep a close eye on storms. they directly effect us. I think it is very misguided that you would post something that makes it appear you some how knew something that no one in the world knew prior to Sunday AM and attempt to keep that appearance going.

It is very easy to dig up historical data on storm statements and storm profiles if you do a bit of searching. Maybe Washington State is a bit too far off the Gulf Coast to be getting involved as knowledgeable on such an important safety issue.

[Cheechako]

Well, I'm OK with being off base. That article is from the Saturday Houston Chronicle though. As I said above: You are right though, it's amazing how little info there was.... the above is out of the houston newspaper"... But I'm OK with being "wrong". You're right, I'm wrong, have a nice day!