Fay is On Her Way...

Bringing heavy tropical rains and tropical storm-force winds,Tropical Storm Fay has made landfall for the first time in the US and a second landfall will occur tomorrow morning estimated to be very close to home. Fay is on her way.

A hurricane warning is now in effect for southwestern Florida including Ft Myers which is where we live.

As of 8 pm this evening, Fay was located about 105 miles south of Ft. Myers,with maximum sustained winds at 60 miles per hour. Fay is moving to the north at 9 mph.This northward motion is expected to continue until tomorrow's landfall somewhere along the southwest Florida coast.

Parts of the Florida Keys has experienced tropical storm conditions during much of the day and will likely continue to feel these effect through the evening hours. Sustained winds, at times, have been above 40 mph while gusts have approached 60 mph or greater in a few locales. A gust above hurricane force (74 mph or higher) is not out of the question.

The greatest impact from Fay, however, has been the heavy rain. Fay is forecast to produce rain totals of 4 to 8 inches with some locations picking up close to 10 inches throughout the Florida Keys and portions of South Florida. As Fay rotates northward, it is also possible for isolated tornadoes to impact the South Florida area.

Fay is not a very organized system and regardless of Fay's landfall, the majority of the Florida peninsula will experience heavy rain. There is a small window of time during which Tropical Storm Fay may gain some slight additional organization and thus strengthen. It is not out of the question that Fay may reach Category 1 hurricane status before making landfall along the southwest Florida coast. This is what we are all preparing for.

Fay's peak strength is all dependent on how long it remains over the Gulf waters.

With the uncertainty of where the storm will go, we are making all the necessary precautions. This evening my dad and Nils were busy bringing in patio furniture and putting up the storm shutters. Comcast ordered that all technicians with company vehicles be off the road by 6 pm tonight. Comcast has also agreed to close the office until noon tomorrow. We were all given a card with a Hurricane Hotline number to call around 10 am tomorrow morning for further instructions on whether or not we are to report to work along with any other updates on the storm they might have. Some areas are under mandatory evacuation (coastal areas) and schools in both our county and our neighboring county are scheduled to be closed tomorrow.

With such bad weather in our near future, you would have never known it by looking outside. Outside it looks like our typical Florida summer evening rain with just a slight increase in wind. But as they say, there is the calm before the storm. So for now we are just relaxing and keeping up with the Weather Channel for updates.