Was it a Tornado?

This afternoon’s severe t-Storms, which were well forecasted by NWS and superbly covered by David Bernard, brought several buildings down from strong winds.  Right away many say it had to be a tornado.  After all, there were many cell phone pictures of a funnel cloud so it had to be a tornado.  Whoa, let’s listen to NWS Meteorologist in charge Ken Graham tell Ch. 4’s Bill Capo that all he’s seen is debris blown in one direction which is more likely due to a down burst in a heavy T-Storm.  But damage is damage regardless.  The bigger concern should be the readiness (or lack of) of our buildings to withstand major hurricane force winds.    We have not really had a Hurricane windstorm since Andrew in 1992, and that was in south FL.   Here in SE Louisiana you have to go back to Camille, but Camille’s winds stayed just to the east of NOLA.  Whether it was a tornado or a down burst, those buildings that crumbled should tell us when the CAT 5 comes, property damage here will be extreme.  Our buildings are old and even the newer ones are not being constructed to the standards of South Florida.   As Mr. T would say…” I pity the fool that would stay in a Cat. 4 or 5.”

 

Earl moved into Belize so it’s time to focus  back in the Gulf and Caribbean.  The Euro & GFS still hint that some kind of low pressure will likely form early next week either off the east coast of FL or in the NE Gulf and move to the west.  We could be in for an extended period of heavy tropical rainfall.  NE of Puerto Rico, a wave is interacting with an upper low producing some showers but that system should turn to the north around the upper low.  Behind that is another fast moving wave that has very little showers with it so far.  There appears to be some spin with it and it could start to crank up as it heads father to the west away from the Saharan dust and over warmer waters.   Bottom line…there are no storms to track tonight and NHC is not indicating anything for the next 5 days.  Let’s keep a watch on that wave east of the islands to see if it might tuned into something.  Stay tuned!