Category Archives: Weather

Wastewater Triggered Red Tide (K. brevis)

Red tide is engulfing the coastline after a nasty wastewater spill may have triggered an intense algal bloom. Hurricane Hermine made landfall on the northern gulf coast of Florida on September second. The repeated bouts of rain put many of the aging sewage systems into overload. Even with sewage plants purging water pre-storm, the sewage systems became overloaded. Wastewater was lost into Tampa Bay, wastewater that was quickly washed into the gulf.  Wastewater can be a trigger for the naturally occurring Red Tide (K. brevis) blooms. Continue reading Wastewater Triggered Red Tide (K. brevis)

Surf Forecast

The surf has been flat for a while now, since Hermine. There is a boundary of air just above Louisiana, but it’s going to pull out of the south and into the northeast. It isn’t going to dip into the gulf. In the coming weeks cooler air will begin entering our area with troughs dipping far enough south to change our weather. They will start out mild, but once October rolls around, we will begin to get surf. With the increasingly fall like pattern, increasingly stronger cold fronts will get us into spring-suits, then wetsuits. The water temperature is at 85 degrees right now, but the mild cold fronts will decrease nighttime temps. Lower nigh-time temperatures will slowly bring down the water temperature. With a few decent cold fronts the water will quickly drop 10 degrees or more. There is usually one cold front mild enough to wear a spring-suit, then the cold wind will quickly put us into full-suits. Surf is coming.

Beach Erosion from Hurricane Hermine

The foreground of this image is of the beach closer to the existing T-groin. This section of beach was re-nourished with sand just this past year. As you can see there are a considerable amount of lime rocks on what is left of the beach.
Continue reading Beach Erosion from Hurricane Hermine