At the beginning of January, I packed my bags and headed to the Lone Star State to attend and present at the Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Sadly, I did not have room in my bags to bring my rain gauge, but luckily enough, members from CoCoRaHS HQ in Colorado remembered to pack some for the annual WeatherFest event that was held the Sunday before the meeting. The event allows people from the surrounding community to come and experience a variety of interactive weather and science exhibits, and CoCoRaHS has been part of WeatherFest over the last few years. We featured our 'How Much Rain Can You Squeeze from A Cloud?' game again this year as a fun, interactive, and somewhat competitive way to educate attendees how to read a rain gauge. Everyone had a great time, as we had national, state, regional and local coordinators from all over the U.S participate. We were lucky enough to have some observers from the Austin area come and volunteer throughout the day and were even allowed to put out a rain gauge at the convention center during the meeting.

Nolan and Henry checking the rain gauge after overnight rains in Austin at the convention center.

After hearing some suggestions from observers, we've decided to open up the Florida CoCoRaHS Facebook Page so that you all are able to post stories, pictures, or ask questions directly on the wall. I will be monitoring the content that is posted to the wall, meaning that after you've submitted a post, I will have to go through and approve it before it will appear. This way, I can make sure that only relevant stuff is posted and nothing that would be seen as inappropriate makes it way on our Facebook Page. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

On February 1-2, 1983, tornadoes were reported across the statewide, including two separate downburst events. The official write up in the 'Storm Data and Unusual Weather Phenomena' Report issued by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) states:  

"A line of thunderstorms moved eastward into the western Florida Panhandle before dawn February 1 and continued southeastward through the entire state exiting the southeast coast and Keys around sunset February 2. 18 Tornadoes occurred along with sever thunderstorm downbursts, hail and heavy rain. No extensive flooding was reported although short-lived local flooding was observed. Four people were killed along with several (~32) serious injuries requiring hospitalization, and about 200 people were left homeless. The Orlando area in Orange County of Central Florida probably suffered the most extensive property damage probably because it was the most urbanized area to be hit with severe weather."   

This was one of the most widespread tornado outbreaks in Florida. I've scanned in a copy of the pages from the writeup on the downbursts in Orange Park, FL, and Hawthorne, FL, so that you all can read the narrative and see some of the impressive graphics and pictures that were included in the NCDC report.