- Thunderstorms have pummeled Central Florida almost daily
in the past two weeks, leaving in their wake damaged homes and businesses,
downed trees, power outages, several injuries and at least one death.
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- No county has escaped the tens of thousands of lightning
strikes.
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- Two workers at a Pierson convenience store were injured
Wednesday when lightning hit their building.
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- A Sanford family was burned out of its home Tuesday by
a lightning strike.
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- Three fans at the Pepsi 400 were hurt Saturday in an
electrical storm.
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- A firefighter was injured by crashing debris when three
homes near Oviedo were set ablaze by lightning July 1.
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- The same day, lightning killed a plumber working on a
home in Kissimmee.
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- And a severe storm June 25 uprooted 100-year-old trees
and left thousands without power in the Conway and Belle Isle areas of
Orange County.
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- If it seems as if the weather gods are angry with Central
Florida, weather experts insist there is nothing that sets this year apart
from others.
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- Welcome to summertime in the Sunshine State.
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- The season's weather patterns are consistent, said John
Pendergrast, a National Weather Service meteorologist. The clash of hot,
sticky air inland with cool air rushing in from the coast is the perfect
recipe to cook up violent storms.
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- When the sea breezes collide, the skies are apt to explode,
creating a conga line of violent storms from Polk to Volusia counties.
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- It was no different Wednesday, when isolated storms once
again barreled across the region with heavy rain, damaging wind and thousands
of lightning bolts hotter than the face of the sun.
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- The collision of the sea breezes doesn't always create
severe weather. Other factors, such as drier air or cooler daytime temperatures,
can lessen the severity of storms. But recently, all the ingredients have
been present to create some doozies.
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- "It's not uncommon to see several days of severe
storms," Pendergrast said.
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- 'Everybody runs for cover'
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- But the potential of severe weather lingering this long
is beginning to unnerve some people.
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- At the first clap of thunder, "everybody runs for
cover," said David Watson, owner of the Shipwreck Cafe, a downtown
Sanford restaurant that offers outdoor seating. "Nobody wants to sit
around."
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- "It hits close," Watson said. "It's not
off in the distance."
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- Wednesday's worst storms exploded from Daytona Beach
to Melbourne as the severe weather shifted east for the second consecutive
day, though Osceola County also got slammed.
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- The thunderstorm pattern has moved because of a high-pressure
ridge parked in South Florida, Pendergrast said. That ridge creates a western
breeze early in the day that often is enough to nudge storms east later
in the day, he said.
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- "The sea breezes develop along the east coast and
don't move much," he said. "The western breeze pins the east
coast breeze to the coast."
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- But the storms Tuesday and Wednesday produced an extraordinary
number of lightning strikes -- 16,000 each day -- high even for an area
considered the lightning capital of the United States.
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- On Wednesday, one of at least two storms moved into east
Volusia County about 4 p.m. A lightning strike at a Pierson gas station
traveled into the building and struck a cook and another person inside,
according to emergency workers.
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- By 4:30 p.m., firefighters were responding to several
reported lightning strikes throughout the county.
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- "This storm has been particularly violent -- a lot
of lightning strikes," said Walter Nettles, a Volusia County Fire
Department spokesman. "I've got six lines going."
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- Lake County firefighters say lightning may have caused
a blaze that badly damaged a two-story home south of Clermont. Nobody was
home during the fire, which was still being investigated early Wednesday
evening, officials said.
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- Osceola County's Fire Department responded to reports
of hail about 3 p.m. in Poinciana. Also, a tree hit a house in the Poinciana
development about 3:45 p.m., said Twis Lizasuain, Osceola County spokeswoman.
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- 'Very typical of summer'
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- Nervous weather watchers, especially those who live along
the coast, will need to keep an eye on the sky for at least one more day.
The same ridge of high pressure in South Florida that pushed storms east
Tuesday and Wednesday will be around today, said Scott Kelly, a National
Weather Service meteorologist.
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- "This is very typical of summer weather for Central
Florida," he said. "Lightning is the primary threat to life and
property -- more than wind, more than rain."
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- http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/orl-asecstorms080
70804jul08,0,695783.story?coll=sfla-news-florida
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