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Old 08-16-2006, 07:38 PM
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ricki ricki is offline
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Location: Florida
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Squall Story #III - Delray


I had been watching the system online while deciding whether to head out of the office a bit early to grab a session before the squalls arrived way to the north in Delray. I decided that I might have two hours before an eastern lobe of the system swept into shore. I planned to be onshore and secured before the winds or temperature changed. I had been looking at this thing for several hours prior to heading over to the beach. I thought I should photograph the cloud front as it was so dramatic and obviously hazardous. I concluded, there would be no value in passing along the images as the severe hazards would be obvious to anyone seeing it. My mistake. I have used images from another squall that has some similarities instead.

I arrived, started to setup and noticed a particularly dark squall area due south down the coast about 10 miles. The wind suddenly boosted in the area from east about 12 to 13 kts. to south about 25 to perhaps 30 kts. I started running along with other guys on the beach to catch a flurry of kiters looking to land and secure rapidly. All the riders in Delray landed their kites before the peak winds arrived without incident. There were no dark clouds within many miles of our position. The wind then died and shifted side offshore for the rest of the night. The lobe that I was watching offshore and appears in the sat. image above apparently dissipated before hitting land. Trends and things can change from the Internet to the beach.

By the way, much further north on the same afternoon, northern Florida was being treated to similar but apparently unrelated squalls to the south Florida system with gusts into the 55 to 68 kt.+ range. Quite a bit of damage resulted. More at: http://www.srh.weather.gov/TLH/Aug08event/
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