Stuck in the Liquid Sunshine in Florida, A Winter Wonderland in the Dakotas

You can see the lingering lousy low that will not go away in southeast Georgia this morning. This low pressure is the culprit for all of the heavy rain across the First Coast and do not expect it to move away anytime soon. We are in a holding pattern as this area of low pressure is stuck between a high pressure in the northern Gulf of Mexico to its southwest and a high pressure over the Carolinas to the Northeast. This is unusual for Florida in that we once again saw several hours of continuous rain yesterday. Usually it rains for less than 40 minutes this time of year and then you can get on with your plans. Not this time around. The rain was relentless and our rain-maker was the product of a trough split. You can say this beast formed due to the unusually stormy and snowy weather in the Plains and Midwest. Dickinson, North Dakota turned into a winter wonderland with its first June snow in 60 years.

Kids usually have the shorts out and swing away. Yesterday they were searching for sleds in their hats and gloves as two to four inches of snow blanketed the area.

The picture above tells it all. The sun pops out for a few minutes but do not let it fool you. It should really be called "liquid sunshine". With plenty of moisture, lift, and heating of the atmosphere this fires up more rain showers and thunderstorms. It's like nature turns up the heat on a stove and our atmosphere is that pot of boiling water. It certainly boiled over yesterday. You can see how the sunshine quickly gave way to a sky that was almost as dark as night. Here is how it looked before I got on Interstate 95 yesterday.

I quickly put away the camera and then went through a torrential downpour. This low pressure if anything will slowly drift south and then southwest over the next couple of days. I do not think we will return to our more typical summer pattern in Jacksonville until Tuesday at the earliest but at this point we will just have to take it a day at a time as this storm has a mind of its own. This weekend here in St. Johns we have totaled almost one inch of rain and look for another one to two inches of rain before this system finally winds down by the middle of next week.

At least I did get to the ballpark with my two oldest daughters on Friday night and watched the Suns beat the Mudcats 5 to 2. It was their first baseball game and they had a great time. We sat near the field near the first baseman and that kept us all on our toes. We did not catch any balls but had a few close calls. We saw a few towering home runs as the wind blew out to left field. It was also Hurricane Preparedness Night and we got our tracking charts. That is what a great night at the old ballgame. Check back on the blog for a tropical update coming your way on Monday which does include a tropical wave in the Caribbean that is trying to get its act together. Nothing is imminent but it may be a sign of a named storm in June over the next couple of weeks. I am heading to a birthday party. Thanks for reading and take care. Do not let the rain wash you away!