Astronomy Journal Entry

Tropical Storm Journal Entry

Tropical Storm Fay Pounds Florida (August 25, 2008)

Some Floridians were starting to think they might never get rid of it. Pesky, zig-zagging Tropical Storm Fay struck Florida four different times, bringing heavy rains and floods in its wake. After drenching the state for days, Fay still wasn't done. The storm's remnants continued chugging northward and brought rains and floods across parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee. The slow-moving storm was blamed for at least twelve deaths in the Southeast.

The storm's progress was blocked by strong high-pressure systems to the north and east that kept Fay swirling over Florida for nearly a week. Fay's first landfall was on the Florida Keys. It moved out over open water before slamming the state a second time along the southwestern coast near Naples. Fay dumped heavy rain as it crawled across central Florida then briefly moved out over the Atlantic. The storm boomeranged back across the northern part of the state for its third hit before moving out over the Gulf of Mexico. Fay roared back and made a record-setting fourth landfall near Apalachicola on the Florida Panhandle.

The worst damage was in the central and northeastern parts of the state, where Fay stalled midweek. The storm dumped up to 30 inches (75 cm) of rain along parts of the low-lying central Atlantic coast. Some areas were swamped with up to five feet (1.5 meters) of standing water. Hundreds of homes were flooded.

Before slamming Florida, Fay killed at least twenty-three people as it raged across the Caribbean, hitting the nations of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Fay is the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season which runs through the end of November. With warm ocean temperatures and favorable winds, meteorologists say conditions are right for this to be a busy season.