OK, have not seen a thread, so anyone in the path that wants to check in here we can.
Conditions in Palm Harbor (near Clearwater) are calm now. About an hour ago a minor band passed through, looks like another is going to hit in about 15-20 minutes
Current radar from our local cable news, BayNews9 (larger)
A wider view clearly shows the eye-ish structure. I’ve been busy with work so have not looked too hard at the actual picture. I’m more of a radar/satellite data type guy anyway.
The wind depiction on Nullschool is impressive, especially with Franklin churning relatively nearby
Two storms are about 1000 miles apart, too far for the Fujiwhara effect...Idalia is clearly not as symmetric as Franklin...thanks to nullschool.net (larger)
So far we have not seen the explosive growth that was expected. I suspect the 5 PM update will have it close to 100 MPH maximum winds. I get about 90-95 looking at the 3 PM data on Nullschool.
I’m hunkering down with my pack of dogs. My wife is in a rehab nearby recovering from a broken leg...so no option to evacuate this time, even if it looked far worse for me. I have plenty of water (a case of bottles are frozen) and cooked up some rice and ground beef I can eat cold if I lose my power. With my wife basically gone for 2 weeks (she was home for about 2 days last weekend — I could not deal with it and her fracture was getting worse) my fridge looks like a bachelors. So there’s not much to worry about there.
Dogs have plenty of food. I have a manual can-opener, batteries, lamps, a hand crank radio...I don’t think I’ll need it, we should see moderate storm force winds. It could still bomb out, but I’m thinking that high end category 3 or cat 4 isn’t going to realize.
Best of luck to those, like me, affected. Let’s hear how your doing. Be safe.