August 13, 2003
BY MARTIN MERZER AND MATTHEW I. PINZUR
Photo: A TWIST IN THE WEATHER: A waterspout twists over Miami Beach, one of two such water-tornadoes that formed Tuesday. The first was reported near Aventura around 7 a.m. A few minutes later, the Miami Beach spout made an appearance on land, knocking down lifeguard posts and a few trees. The weather oddities may foreshadow a wet and windy couple of days: A tropical wave could arrive tonight. SHAWN SIMMONS/FOR THE HERALD
As though we haven't had enough wild weather lately, the season's first serious barrage of tropical weather is expected to batter South Florida tonight and Thursday.
A sprawling, sloppy tropical disturbance is strengthening in the Atlantic Ocean and could become a tropical depression before it arrives tonight, forecasters said. Predicted for tonight through Thursday: one to three inches of rain and 25 mph winds.
''This one could be a total soaker,'' said Jim Lushine, a National Weather Service severe weather expert.
Which of course requires . . . a fire watch? Yes. It's one of those ''you're in South Florida'' oddities -- like the twin waterspouts that photogenically danced through Northeast Miami-Dade County on Tuesday morning, but inflicted little damage.
Forecasters said dry air and steady winds were expected today ahead of the tropical disturbance, compelling them to slap a fire watch on 11 counties, including Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, until 6 tonight.
In recent days, tornadoes have ravaged parts of Palm Beach County, severe thunderstorms have plagued Broward and Miami-Dade, and those two waterspouts astonished people in Miami Beach and elsewhere. Now, tropical weather is knocking on the front door.
''The weather we've had so far could just be the appetizer,'' Lushine said.
Forecasters said the center of the system, called a tropical wave, would probably pass through the Keys, but most of the rain and winds would be concentrated north of the center and would roll over Broward and Miami-Dade.
Though things can change -- and often do when the weather is involved -- forecasters expected widespread rain rather than the usual summer pop-up thunderstorms.
''The important thing is that whatever this ends up as -- a tropical storm, a tropical depression or just a tropical wave -- it will come here,'' said Lixion Avila of the National Hurricane Center in West Miami-Dade. ``We will have heavy rain and gusty winds.''
Meteorologists said a separate set of atmospheric circumstances generated Tuesday's waterspouts. A waterspout is essentially a tornado that forms and remains over water.
The first spout was reported near Aventura about 7:10 a.m., prompting a special marine warning, said forecaster Roberto Garcia.
A few minutes later, a second waterspout approached the coast a little farther south, apparently rumbled through the beach -- technically becoming a tornado the moment it touched land -- and reformed over Biscayne Bay.
Lushine said it knocked down lifeguard posts and sea grape trees in Miami Beach.
Though dramatic, waterspouts are not uncommon here. South Florida is the waterspout capital of the world, forecasters said.
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