It’s come and gone – a rare November Tropical Storm that made landfall (barely) here in South Florida. It crossed-over the Upper Florida Keys this past Sunday night with maximum sustained winds of 65 MPH. It came within about 65 miles (due south) of my home. Our maximum sustained winds here in Homestead Florida were just below 30 MPH, but we did have some wind gusts in the 40 to 50 MPH range late on Sunday night. That’s well below what was forecast. We also received about 4½ inches of rain – less than half of what was forecast. Parts of North Miami-Dade and Broward Counties received 12 to 18 inches of rain ! (They got more than they expected.)
Hurricane Season continues on until the end of November, and it looks like another storm is brewing to the south of us. It will likely become Tropical Storm Iota – the 30TH named storm of the season.
It’s actually “Dry Season” here in South Florida. It started on October 15TH, and it continues on until May 15TH (7 months total). It’s been a very wet year – and that includes the first month of “Dry Season”. Much of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties have received 80 to 90 inches of rain so far in 2020 (well above average and approaching record highs). Here in Homestead (South Miami-Dade) we’re not quite at those levels, but we’re close.
With La Niña here (our strongest since 2011) it should be mostly warm and dry here in South Florida this winter with frequent but very short bursts of cold air behind cold fronts. There’s also the usual slight chance of a freeze in late-December / early-January. We came real close to a freeze last January (2020) when we dropped to 38°F / 3°C. We started 2020 with geckos falling from trees.
YEP – I’m a weather geek. I’ve been one for over 40 years.
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