Christmas in Florida

My family usually celebrates Christmas together on Christmas Eve, it was cloudy, breezy and the temperature was in the low 70's. My parents house is almost always warm but with the windows open it was comfortable. Moms tree looked beautiful, she had multi-colored lights and all of our traditional ornaments. It was a nice evening with casual food and plenty of presents! My brother in Vermont sent gifts and goodies down and my sister from South Carolina drove down so that was really nice. We still haven't seen or heard from the youngest boy in our family but that is another story. Mom and I took a stroll around the neighborhood to work off our dinner and see the decorations. It was breezy but warm. I drove home around 10pm. Christmas morning we woke up to a squall line at around 730am and another line around 900am, bringing the latest cold front. It stayed cloudy most of the day but didn't really cool down until last night, temp this morning is 59 and the humidity is 79%, we are not going to get much warmer today but it feels great and the sun is shining! This evening a sunset get together is planned at my sisters new house on the water, should be cool and lovely. This is Christmas in Florida! How was Christmas where you are? Anyone have a white Christmas?

It's Official, Winter has Arrived!

December 21, the first day of winter. Up north, winter arrived a few days early with the Blizzard of 2009!! El Nino is really messing with us. In the Tampa Bay area we are also having winter, today the morning temps were in the high 40's and low 50's and didn't make it out of the 50's for the high. It looks like Christmas will be seasonal in the 60's and low 70's. I wonder if the snow up north will stay long enough for everyone to have a white Christmas or if it will all be gone? Could be rain showers for us. We are really catching up with our rain this winter which is great, it is safe to say the drought in the south is gone. My sister had a freeze in Greenville south Carolina but no snow. She was without electric for about 12hrs. Good thing she has a gas fireplace for heat! Anybody else have any early winter weather tales to tell?

Crazy Florida Weather

Fog, heat, humidity, we've got everything but seasonal weather here in the Tampa Bay area!
Doesn't feel anything like Christmas. An El Nino weather pattern is dominating, dumping a lot of early snow up north, lot's of rain in the south and we are getting a little bit of everything but snow thank goodness! Maybe for Christmas week we'll have a real cold front, would be nice!

Rain, Rain and More Rain

Yesterday the Tampa Bay area experienced a full day rain event with some areas up to 3 inches of the wet stuff, at least it wasn't the white stuff like some rare areas for snow like Texas and Alabama! Unfortunatly I was out driving in it but did my errands and made it home safely. The last of it blew thru this morning leaving the cold dry air behind, it got up to 61 earlier but is down to 59 and some areas will be in the 40's and even 30's in the northern counties tonight. I will be home nice and cozy in front of my Christmas tree for the duration of the weekend. We really needed the rain as this is our dry season but a full day of rain, we are not used to around here. Usually when the fronts come down, it is a quick short rain followed by the cold air but yesterday was a combination of things that gave us the full day of it.

A Powerfull Punch!

With the approaching cold front a powerful line of thunderstorms is heading thru our area as we speak. At work we were all worried about getting home before this hit and fortunately everyone should have made it home from work before the really bad rain, many people I work with have a commute up to 1 hour in good weather! I just have to drive over the Howard Franklin bridge but do not like to do it at all in bad weather. This storm will be quick moving bringing rain, high wind including possible tornadoes and behind it, cooler temps. Then another system will be moving thru Friday and Saturday. The whole Tampa Bay area is expecting rain amounts up to 3 inches. Some good news, 11/30 marked the end of the 2009 Atlantic Hurricane Season, yeah!
There were a total of 9 Named storms, three of them became hurricanes and those stayed out at sea or weekend before passing over land. Only two tropical storms made landfall. We were all very lucky this year. It was probably do to an El Nino or La Nina (I get these confused!!) some weather girl I am! Let me know how you did getting home tonight or for friends not in the Tampa Bay area please let me know how the weather is in your area.