Wunder Blog : Weather Underground
Tropical Storm Fay continues its trek over the Florida Panhandle, and it now centered over land just north of Apalachicola, after making its record 4th landfall on the state this morning. Radar and satellite loops show no major changes to Fay. The storm still has a large circulation with plenty of rain bands sprawling over much of northern Florida and southern Georgia. The center of Fay should emerge over the Gulf of Mexico just west of Panama City this afternoon, and we can expect a modest increase in strength as it feeds off the warm Gulf waters. Yesterday, Fay intensified from 45 mph to 50 mph when its center emerged over the water for 12 or so hours, and I expect a 5-15 mph increase in the winds by Sunday evening, before the center moves back over land again.
Fay’s rains
Fay’s rains continue to pile up over northern Florida, but have mostly ended over the Melbourne region, which endured it’s greatest single-storm rainfall on record. Fay dumped an official 22.83″ of rain on Cape Canaveral. According to the latest public information statement from the NWS office in Melbourne, we have an unofficial public observation at Melbourne/Windover Farms (through 6 am 8/22/08) of 26.65″. The previous rainfall record for a tropical cyclone in the region was set in 1950, when Hurricane King dumped 15.44″ of rain on Patrick Air Force Base near Cape Canaveral. Hurricane Wilma of 2005 holds third place–it dumped 13.26″ on Kennedy Space Center.
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