January 17, 2016

Calm Before the Storms

SDP 1-17-16
Meteorologists predicted severe weather for early Sunday morning, but there weren't any signs during this beautiful sunset at Myakka River State Park last night.  Then, 9 hours later, I was awakened by a weather alert on my cell phone: tornado warning!  Sarasota was in the direct path of at least two tornadoes as a dangerous line of thunderstorms rolled ashore from the Gulf of Mexico in the middle of the night. 


Severe structural damage is being reported on Siesta Key (south of downtown Sarasota).  Somehow,  the storm just grazed the Sarasota city limits, with initial damage reports showing only downed power lines and trees.  Minutes before landfall, the weather radar indicated a possible direct hit on downtown Sarasota by an EF-2 tornado with wind speeds up to135 mph.  Thankfully, that didn't happen.  Amazingly, no one was killed or seriously hurt in Sarasota County.  Unfortunately, though, when a second line of storms cut through the area a short time later, two people were killed in Manatee County just to the north. 


All's well (albeit busy) in the SDP world.  We didn't even experience wind gusts at the SDP Headquarters.  My tremendous respect for Mother Nature continues.

8 comments:

Lowell said...

Glad to hear you came through this unscathed. Some folks in the Naples area got hit pretty bad, too. We had lots of rain and some wind but today is sunny, cool and quite windy. Nice to have that weather alert on your phone. Beautiful sunset pic!

Lorraine said...

The colors in your photo are so beautiful! I have a friend who relocated to Sarasota this past year. She said she got that warning on her phone also last night. Very scary. Glad all is well with you.

Jack said...

I slept through everything but saw on the news this morning that Sarasota and Tampa had deaths attributed to tornadoes. In Naples, it seems that the damage was confined to some natural pruning of palm trees and the occasional uprooted trees, mainly east of 75. Fortunately, no loss of life here. Glad you came through it OK.

Nancy J said...

Your sunset gave no indication of what was coming.So glad all is safe with you.

Kate said...

Nature can be so beautiful as your photo shows but it sure can be destructive, too!

William Kendall said...

A beautiful sunset. Another blogger I follow has been in Florida and she made mention of bad weather in that part of the state some days ago.

Michelle said...

Glad to hear you are well!

Kay said...

Phew! That sounds too close for comfort and completely terrifying. Mother Nature doesn't fool around. Glad to hear you're doing well.