Stuff

NHC

It looked for a minute there that we might get some excitement from TS Chantal, but the latest forecasts have it turning east before it gets here, so I guess we'll wait and see what the next systems do. For those of you reading from St. Kitts, I am posting on StormCarib again (at least while Michael's there). I'm a correspondent for Key West too, but there hasn't been much to talk about yet.

There's still been a lot of moisture in the air here, so much so that there have been quite a few waterspouts spotted around (off Tampa/Clearwater area). Holy cow.



No seriously. Holy frickin' cow.

Photo by: Anne-Marie Filipinski-Towne

In case you're wondering, these things can do damage, but do so rarely, which is amazing considering South Florida is the "waterspout capital of the world."

In other news, the Key West Police Department just posted that 28 Cuban refugees washed up on Southernmost Point right after the 4th of July fireworks. How 'bout that for serendipity?

Seriously, 28 people floated in pretty rough seas for 90 miles in this thing.

According to the post, "under the nation's wet foot dry foot policy, they will not be returned to Cuba because they were able to come ashore." Apparently, these lucky folks get "inspected," admitted/paroled into the US, and then after a year become permanent residents. Seems like the Mexicans are doing it all wrong...