If you just had a Flash upgrade in Firefox or Chrome, you may need to download again to get version 11.3.300.262 which came out on June 21^st. If Flash keeps crashing on you, the -.262 fix seems to take care of it.

This evening the venerable Site Meter has begun to act strange, with a pop-up box asking for authentication. Just close it and ignore it. This occurs at random intervals when you open any site that has the Site Meter counter. Hopefully they will fix the problem shortly.

Position: 29.2N 85.1W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [040°] near 2 mph [ 4 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 45 mph [ 75 kph].
Wind Gusts: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 240 miles [390 km].
Minimum central pressure: 992 mb.

Currently about 35 miles [ 55 km] South of Apalachicola, Florida.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Florida from Mexico Beach to Englewood.

The 10AM CDT update moved the western limit of the Warning area to 5 miles East of me, which is good because I have other things to do.

The storm is still creeping along and it has entered the cooler water near the coast. It had already pulled a lot of dry air into its core and has been battered by moderate wind shear, so intensification is extremely unlikely. Meanwhile, it has been dumping swimming pools of rain on the peninsula and spawning tornadoes. Slow moving storms produce major flooding regardless of their status on the wind scale. Tropical storm force winds generate surge that will push water into bays and bayous that acts like a dam, preventing rain run-off from draining. There are a lot of people in Tampa and other areas of the peninsula looking for their flood insurance policies this morning.

At 10PM they moved the Warning area further east to Mexico Beach, Florida. Meanwhile, Apalachicola has been enduring tropical storm conditions for a full day and it isn’t going to get better anytime soon.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]