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Updated everyday throughout the hurricane season - “Talking the Tropics With Mike”.
Summer is “officially” underway with the solstice arriving June 20th. Recall the seasons are determined by the tilt of the earth (not distance from the sun). The tilt of the Northern Hemisphere is toward the sun now, so the sun is most directly overhead this time of year & the sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer (23 degrees N). The longest day of the year is usually after the solstice - the last week of June into early July. The latest sunset for Jacksonville - 8:33pm - continues through July 2nd.
NOAA solstic/equinox graphic:
Which brings us to some interesting 90 degree data. For the year so far - through June 24th - Jacksonville is at a record 45 90-degree days *so far*. The average for an entire year is 82 days (since 2000). Looking at 90-degree days since the year 2000 in Jacksonville, only 11 of the 25 years have been above average though there has been a surge in recent years.
JEA is offering free water kits. You can place your order * here *. If you have any questions, email jeawaterkit@franklinenergy.com or call (888) 893-8218 Monday - Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., ET. Must be a current JEA Water customer to be eligible for a water kit. JEA says you can save up to $75 per year using efficiency products but expect delivery to take 4-6 weeks.
June 22-28 is “Lightning Safety Awareness Week”. The designation began in 2001 & stats show awareness has helped with the U.S. average for lightning fatalities falling from 55 people 24 years ago to near 20 now. More NOAA info * here *. It’s critical to understand that lightning can travel up to 10 miles from its parent cloud. You can determine how far away lightning is by counting in seconds from the flash to thunder then dividing by 5 which equals *approximately* the number of miles away that the strike occurred. When you hear thunder, go inside waiting at least 30 minutes since the last rumble before going back outside. And download the First Alert Weather App for free to find out how close lightning is to your location.
Moving to the tropics... the first named storm of the Atlantic season developed briefly over the N. Atlantic June 24th 500+ miles E/NE of Bermuda. There were no impacts to any land areas on a system that would have never been upgraded in the previous century let alone prior to about 2010. But it’s on to “Barry” now.
Our Jacksonville National Weather Service will be conducting a tropical training week open to the public with daily sessions from July 21st-24th. More info. & how you can register * here *.
Google (DeepMind) has announced the launch of their Weather Lab with an emphasis on the tropics. Test results from last year’s hurricane season show promise & the Nat. Hurricane Center plans to observe the model this season comparing to some of the more traditional models & methods of forecasting hurricanes. Weather lab not only showed promise with track but even the far more difficult intensity forecast as indicated in the charts below: