At landfall, Idalia will be FOURTH Major Hurricane to make landfall in the state since 2017. Three have ironically been “I” storms, Irma, Ian and now Idalia. Michael in 2018 was the other. For comparison we had ZERO major Hurricane landfalls in Florida between 1966 and 1991. We had only two between 1992 and 2003 […]
With Idalia almost certain now to make landfall in the Big Bend region it will be first direct landfall of a major Hurricane n the region since Easy in 1950. Category 2 Gladys in 1968 made landfall in Homosassa in 1968, south of the Big Bend (and the closest landfall to the Tampa Bay area […]
The moisture tail and outer bands of Idalia are now battering southwest Florida, the same areas that were so horribly impacted by Ian last September. Meanwhile the strengthening storm has a pretty definitive path toward the Big Bend with atmospheric conditions giving it a clear lane by which to travel. The latest model runs are […]
Its rare to have such consensus between models but with Idalia the major models which the NHC rely on are in general agreement as of this morning. As a result the NHC can with some confidence forecast a landfall somewhere between Homosassa and St Marks. While this is bad news for the state, it’s is […]
Join us every Tuesday in the next few months for a tour around the state as we visit Florida’s forts and the history behind them. From Dry Tortugas to Pensacola, the Sunshine State is covered with forts that have seen action in wars from the 1500’s onward. We will discuss them all in this podcast […]
After Florida outlawed partisan gerrymandering in 2010, state politicians said they wanted the people to draw our new electoral maps. What that meant was they wanted Right Wing Lobbyists to draw up the maps and then hand them out during town halls throughout the state. For years my Congressional district ran from the outskirts of […]
Overnight on visible radar we saw deeper convection and a tropical system that was forming a definitive shape. This morning, the modeling clearly indicated a storm that probably will be a major Hurricane (cat 3 or higher) at landfall somewhere on the west coast of Florida. My greatest fear in the storm is that the […]
With Idalia barreling towards Florida, the timing is right to rerun this piece which highlighted the differences in how the two storms that struck Florida last year were handled by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The National Hurricane Center (NHC) rightly got lots of criticism for its handling of Hurricane Ian. Not only was forecast wrong […]
Breaking my Twitter sabbatical for #Idalia, though I plan to resume it after the storm clears Florida. Some observations: 1- I’ve seen the modeling trend eastward over the last 18 hours. Pretty consistent eastward shift. The NHC has now adjusted its forecast track accordingly. This brings the Tampa Bay area into play. 2- The midlevel […]
I’ll readily admit that while considering myself left-of-center politically, I don’t like identity politics or woke stuff. As someone who writes about history, I like to view things more through the lens of class than that of race, though the two are often intertwined- and when they are, I will point it out. I don’t […]
The Florida Squeeze 