We had a gorgeous pre-dawn launch of Starlink satellites from the Florida Space Coast this morning that created quite the jellyfish effect low on the horizon! This launch was highly visible from Florida all the way to the northeast USA.
After manual quality control, I found the longest lightning strike in my records since I started researching central Florida lightning data (since 2023).
This intracloud strike traveled 57km from north to south, hopping along a convective outer rainband of Invest #93L.
#FLwx
Last week's severe weather in Iowa added enough tornadoes to bring it tied for the least year-to-date, since 1980 (16), based on preliminary surveys. Remarkable given the record was just last year (108 YTD). #IAwx
Precipitable water came in at 2.44" this morning at Cape Canaveral SFS ahead of #93L. This is the second-highest for the date and sixth-highest on record for July (since 1950).
Very heavy rain will be associated with any showers and storms today across central Florida. #FLwx
Yesterday's EF-1 #tornado near Essex, Iowa was rated a preliminary width of 3130 yards, or 1.78mi wide. This is the widest tornado on record (since 1950) in the state surpassing an EF-3 on the infamous Mapleton, Iowa tornado outbreak night in 2011. #IAwx
While 2025's tornado count is off to a very fast start, I think what's equally incredible is the total track length. Through April 6, the preliminary data show the season so far is just below 1974 for total tornado track length.
2025 is still preliminary.
That line that races off in April is 2011.
More than 17,000 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes were tallied by the Cape MERLIN with the strong storms Monday between 4-11 p.m. over central Florida. The storms put on quite the show! #flwx
Tonight's SpaceX FRAM2 launch against a horizon filled with lightning! This might be one of my new favorites.
So it appears the largest gap between the end of one and the start of the next, during the March 14-16 period, is 354 minutes (just shy of six hours) at the very end.
During the meat of the outbreak there was a 219 minute gap (3hr 39min) with another 325 minute (5hr 25 minutes).
I'll do a little more digging to make certain, but this seems to fit into that mold of 6-hour gaps. I'll get back to you on that once I am certain I didn't miss anything.
The longest gap of tornadoes between from March 14-15 is only 3 hours and 42 minutes. They were coming in pretty early on the 15th as well. The large Friday outbreak was going until 9:14z wit the first on the 15th at 12:59z.
So this event had 114 total tornadoes.
95 of those were factored into the Adjusted Fujita Miles calculating as it only uses EF1+.
The ranking is based on Fuhrmann et al. 2014 (linked). I ran the numbers on this event as well as March 31-April 1, 2023, another rather significant outbreak since this paper calculated events, and the March 2025 sequence is quite remarkable.
2023 - 1897
Paper: journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...
Here's the latest on the March 14-16 tornado outbreak across the United States - Using the Adjusted Fujita Method for quantifying this outbreak using the *preliminary* data, the AFM for this outbreak is 2813. This would be the fourth most-significant outbreak based on 1973-2011 events.
Due to cuts from the Trump administration, eight additional upper air sites are cutting or completely eliminating data collection. This will have a significant impact on our ability to forecast in order to save lives and property. This is on top of the several sites already cut or eliminated.
The updated #tornado count for the March 14-16 sequence in the United States is up to 107. Surveys are continuing and could take several more days, if not weeks, before the total is finalized.
On or after April 4, 2025, at approximately 15:10UTC, GOES-19, the newest satellite in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series, will become the operational GOES-East satellite, replacing GOES-16.
-NWS Office of Observations
The March 14-16, 2025 #tornado outbreak is up to at least 69 tornadoes based on preliminary data. Surveys are continuing. This will continue to evolve and takes days, if not weeks, to finalize.
It's a slow, methodical process that is in the best hands possible.
Peak eclipse in Cape Canaveral, Florida!
#FLwx #LunarEclipse
Gorgeous launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA's Crew 10 slipped at least a day, but at least we got a consolation Starlink mission!
We will likely be breaking widespread climate records for surface pressure on Friday. Current guidance is well beyond climatological extremes for a very large area. The ensemble guidance is truly incredible with a minimum pressure of 973mb.
Exceptionally dry air sits over the Florida Space Coast.
Thursday morning's weather balloon from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station had a precipitable water value of 7.61mm (0.30") which is the fifth-lowest on record (since 1950) for the date, sitting below the 90th percentile. #FLwx
A very powerful storm system will traverse the US early next week bringing high-end severe weather to the South and accumulating snow North/Midwest.
The low pressure is forecast to be at a climatological minimum. Very intense!
A jellyfish in the evening Florida twilight as a SpaceX Falcon 9 carries a Maxar WorldView Legion satellite to space.
Go SpaceX, Go SpainSat NG-1!
Farewell B1073 🫡
#FLwx
Can we talk about that amazing launch last night? New Glenn is truly a BLUEtiful rocket!
Go #BlueOrigin, Go #NewGlenn!
New heavy-lift rocket in town. Go Blue Origin's New Glenn!
Gorgeous launch of tonight's Firefly Space "Blue Ghost" and
ispace inc. "RESILIENCE" spacecrafts, headed to a lunar landing! #SpaceX
Looks like a rapid wildfire is developing now between Santa Clarita and San Fernando along I-5. The hot spot is getting much "brighter" rapidly on GOES-18/GOES-West. #CAwx
North of Pasadena, winds are sustained at 60mph with gusts of 95mph as of the 10 p.m. observation.
Unbelievable. #CAwx #EatonFire
