Stormy Seas
Just off the coast, Tropical Storm Arthur is churning. This is making great waves for the surfers, who will surely be calling in "sick" to work today and tomorrow!The storm had been off our coast on the weekend, much weaker at that point, but then moved down near south Florida. There, it was picked up by the Gulf Stream, where it now appears to be happily flowing northeastward. It's expected to be passing us tonight and heading toward the Carolinas, where it'll probably have winds strong enough to qualify it as Hurricane Arthur.
With the land jutting inward to the west along this stretch of Atlantic Ocean coastline and the Gulf Stream remaining northeasterly bound farther away from us, we don't typically get direct strikes from hurricanes. The storms are drawn into the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream and remain in it, well off our coast. Economic development folks, when pitching companies on relocating to this area, have been known to refer to this as the "recurvature effect." In south Florida, the Gulf Stream is much closer to shore, so they tend to get the brunt of storms more often.
While it may put a damper on the over-eager folks already starting to set off fireworks in Neptune Beach, the storm shouldn't impact our actual July 4 festivities, as it'll be well north of us by then.
Thanks for another great sunrise photo, Harriet!
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