5th July 2006: Day 5

A Placid day at Okeechobee
Forecast and model data suggested that a weak tropical wave would move slowly westwards across Florida today, driven by a small upper low moving west through the Florida Straits. Our prediction was to head to central areas of the peninsula, to see how the advancing tropical moisture would interact with a dry slot of air across western Florida. However, as the day progressed, it became clear that the tropical moisture was moving in far slower than we thought. Not only did this result in a bad forecast by us, but even the National Weather Service made a complete mess of today's prediction.

We headed eastwards from Bradenton on Highway 70, with the destination of Lake Okeechobee planned. The trip took around three hours, and included a stop for lunch at Arcadia on the 70, and also a short respite at Lake Placid. This wasn't the Lake Placid of movie fame, but was instead a very peaceful and tranquil boating lake, surrounded by big-bucks property.

As we started the rest of our journey eastwards to Okeechobee, the eastern sky filled with towering cumulonimbus, and distant CGs were flying around. This marked the forward edge of the tropical moisture, advancing slowly westwards.

We visited the north-west portion of Lake Okeechobee, and were somewhat disappointed by it. There were precious few places where the lake could be accessed by visitors, and much of its shoreline was dominated by a quarter-mile deep area of dead trees and swamp. However, we did find a man-made earth causeway which allowed us to walk out into the lake, and here we caught sight of a couple of gators! We stayed put for an hour or so, watching cumulus explode into thunderstorms over the distant eastern shoreline of the lake (which was beyond the curvature of the earth). We became a little unnerved by the vultures which circled us the whole time, so we decided to leave before tha gators came to say hello!

We ended our day with the long drive back to base in Bradenton, passing beneath the advancing moisture plume en route. This gave some light showers, although the main activity kicked off later in the evening, as shown on the radar image below.

Total mileage: 265

The heat was on very early, with highs in the 90s by late morning. The long, straight roads of central Florida disappeared into the heat mirage.
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On arrival at one of the recreation grounds around Lake Okeechobee, we were greeted by a welcoming party!
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The skies began to darken over the north-west shores of Okeechobee, so we decided it was time to head home to Bradenton.
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