Day 4
4th July 2006
 

4th July 2006: Day 4

Shuttles, spouts, and star-spangled banners
Today was designed to be a non-chase day, with our attention very much focussed on the east coast, and the Kennedy Space Center. The forecast was for classic convergence zone thunderstorms, although they were looking rather isolated and weak in nature. As a result, we decided that a once in a lifetime opportunity had to be taken, and we had to travel to Titusville to witness the launch of the Discovery Shuttle.

We headed out by 11am, and had a free and easy journey as far as Orlando. However, as we hit the toll roads between Orlando and Titusville, traffic started backing up as far as the eye could see. We were listening to the non-stop coverage of launch, thanks to local radio based in the Kennedy area. As the minutes before launch grew near, we were still around 14 miles south-west of the pad. It was becoming clear that we wouldn't make the ring-side seat in time.

In an almost unitary decision, every car stuck on the roadway pulled off onto the grass verges simultaneously. Everybody jumped out of their cars, and gazed to the north-east horizon, where Discovery was due to launch. Laura and Bren jumped on the roof of the Jeep for a better look, as the countdown seconds commenced....

....there it was! Discovery, with rockets attached, blasted into the clear-blue skies. It was over a minute before the roar of the thrusters reached us, but it was amazingly loud nonetheless. We grabbed some pleasing footage and photos of the launch, then joined the queues heading back westwards across the state.

On the return journey, we travelled westwards through a convergence line lying through the spine of the state, and this gave some torrential showers. However, little did we know, an upper trough would interact with this convergence line, sparking a uniform line of violent thunderstorms that would head westwards towards our base in Bradenton, near Tampa.

We arrived home in time to see Italy put two goals past Germany in just two minutes, and then turned our attention to the skies. To our north, the sky was ink-black, and a huge gust front moved slowly towards us. Thunder boomed around, and we decided to cross the street to get a better view.

We were then treated to an awesome view of cloud structure and CG lightning. If they weren't enough, a small area of cloud base started rotating. Within seconds, this pulled tight into a cone, and a huge funnel was formed. At times, this stretched over half way between the cloud and the ground. We estimated that it was over the waters of Tampa Bay, and it may well have touched down without condensation funnel. In fact, minutes later a warning was put out from the National Weather Service, confirming that a waterspout had been sighted from the same storm. Here is the warning:

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SPECIAL MARINE WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAMPA BAY AREA - RUSKIN FL
535 PM EDT TUE JUL 4 2006

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RUSKIN HAS ISSUED A

* SPECIAL MARINE WARNING FOR...
COASTAL WATERS FROM ENGLEWOOD TO TARPON SPRINGS OUT 20 NM.
TAMPA BAY WATERS.

* UNTIL 600 PM EDT

* AT 535 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
THUNDERSTORM...CONTAINING A WATERSPOUT...15 MILES EAST OF CLEARWATER BEACH...MOVING SOUTHWEST AT 15 KNOTS.

AT 530 PM EDT...HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY EMERGENCY DISPATCH RELAYED A
PUBLIC REPORT OF A WATERSPOUT BEGINNING TO FORM ON THE EAST SIDE OF
THE HOWARD FRANKLAND BRIDGE.

A WATERSPOUT HAS BEEN SIGHTED! IF AT SEA...TAKE COVER BELOW DECK
UNTIL THE STORM HAS PASSED. OTHERS SHOULD REMAIN IN PORT UNTIL THE
STORM HAS PASSED.

MARINERS CAN ALSO EXPECT LOCALLY HIGH WAVES...DANGEROUS LIGHTNING...
AND TORRENTIAL RAIN. SEEK SAFETY IMMEDIATELY.

After the funnel dissipated, we jumped in the car and chased the the storm as it moved out to sea. Nothing more to see than some lightning and nice cloud structure, but we'd already had our treat of the day.

The day was rounded off by a firework spectacular to mark Independence Day. Pretty much every household in the neighbourhood let off rockets and mortars for hours on end, making Bonfire Night in the UK seem rather tame.

With rockets taking off into space, rockets exploding over our villa, and a possible spout, this was one Independence Day even we were celebrating!

Total mileage: 337

6


A highway-come-carpark! Rocket sightseers gave up the chase, and pulled up on the side of the highway, 14 miles from the launch pad.
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We joined them, putting our equipment, and ourselves, on the roof of the Cherokee!
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3....2....1....Lift-off!!
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The rocket soared into the blue skies, although the Discovery shuttle was hidden here behind the main boosters.
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Just 20 seconds into flight, the rocket was already starting to look tiny.
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This is around the time when the rocket's roar reached the onlookers, and was greeted with huge cheers!
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The tiny white dot is one of the booster rockets, both of which had separated from the shuttle at this point, and were falling back to earth.
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With the excitement of Kennedy Space Centre behind us, we headed home, capturing this nice shower on the way.
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Skies became evil as we arrived back at the villa, with a large and seemingly rotating thunderstorm passing by close to the north of Bradenton.
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And then this dropped from its base!
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The cloud base was already very low, and this cone stretched around half way from the cloud base to the ground.
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The funnel changed shape numerous times, but its rotation remained tight.
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The funnel finally roped out and dissipated.
We captured a short video clip of its final moments: click here (wmv, ~1 min/4MB)
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The rader image shortly after the funnel disappeared. Our location, shown by the white dot, was right on the southern edge of the trough-line.
Radar from GRLevel3
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A different type of rocket to end the day, as America celebrated Independance Day.
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