I always thought the dome of high water was caused by the lowest pressure pulling up on the surface water, causing it to rise. That's what the Weather Channel seems to imply in their graphics about that dome of water I've seen in their presentations. Michael Lowery, you imply it's more or less due to the continental shelf. Very interesting. Can a regular strong extratropical low also create a "dome" of high water near the center? Thanks for the tidbit about the continental shelf and storm surge.
Kind of glad for where I live as we don't tend to have a problem with storm surge. Probably due to the peninsula hanging down and the barrier islands all across the entrance to Charlotte Harbor with Pine Island to the south. Sorry for those up the Peace River though that get flooding from the backed up flow of water. The Celtic Ray in downtown Punta Gorda has a marker on the wall at one end of the bar showing the only time they had any come in. It was about 16 inches high.
Nope only Punta Gorda Isles out bounded by Alligator Creek, the Peace River and Charlotte Harbor seems to get much in the way of flooding but then they are all on canals too.
One from a friend's backyard that was a few miles north of her house and one that went overhead while I was stopped at a light in Clarkston MI. I heard a loud roar and couldn't figure out what it was until I looked up and saw a funnel a couple hundred feet overhead. Scared the crap out of me as there was nowhere to go but fortunately it didn't touch down for about another 50 miles and then only in open fields. I think the scariest storm I have ever been through was the Green Derecho of July 16, 1980. I had been off work only a short time (midnight shift) and was watching a movie when I noticed that outside my apartment the color was weird and went to the doorwall. The clouds were a dirty fishbowl green and quite literally boiling, like at a high boil at that. At first there was no sound at all, not even insects then the wind started howling like a freight train and I saw limbs snapping off trees and carports peeling off their supports. I went out in the hall where several others were gathered. A couple minutes later a guy from the third floor yelled down begging for help as his roof was gone so some of us trooped up to rescue his Tv, stereo system, etc and take them down to the storage lockers in the basement where we stayed for the rest of the storm. The wind was horrifically loud and seemed to go on forever. When it was over it was like a huge, many miles wide tornado had plowed through the area. I was living in Canton, MI at the time and it looked worse than Punta Gorda after Ian. My roommate's mother had a house only a couple of miles away and it took us almost an hour to get there because of the debris and downed power lines everywhere. She had a huge willow tree that was down parallel to the house. If it had fallen on the house she would have been dead. I never want to see another one of those things.
So what you saw the day you were driving was a funnel cloud. A funnel has to touch down to be called a tornado. Back in 1980, they didn't even call those storms derechos. They were known as squall lines or something back then. Sometimes, they are nicknamed lans canes, or inland hurricanes. They can be sort of hurricane-like in the high wind speeds and the type of destruction done; as you say, it was worse than the destruction in Punta Gorda after Ian. I am glad your people were not injured. What a storm you had!!
I always thought the dome of high water was caused by the lowest pressure pulling up on the surface water, causing it to rise. That's what the Weather Channel seems to imply in their graphics about that dome of water I've seen in their presentations. Michael Lowery, you imply it's more or less due to the continental shelf. Very interesting. Can a regular strong extratropical low also create a "dome" of high water near the center? Thanks for the tidbit about the continental shelf and storm surge.
Kind of glad for where I live as we don't tend to have a problem with storm surge. Probably due to the peninsula hanging down and the barrier islands all across the entrance to Charlotte Harbor with Pine Island to the south. Sorry for those up the Peace River though that get flooding from the backed up flow of water. The Celtic Ray in downtown Punta Gorda has a marker on the wall at one end of the bar showing the only time they had any come in. It was about 16 inches high.
That's great, that they don't get much flood water!!
Nope only Punta Gorda Isles out bounded by Alligator Creek, the Peace River and Charlotte Harbor seems to get much in the way of flooding but then they are all on canals too.
So, when you lived in Michigan, did you ever see spring or summer tornadoes?
One from a friend's backyard that was a few miles north of her house and one that went overhead while I was stopped at a light in Clarkston MI. I heard a loud roar and couldn't figure out what it was until I looked up and saw a funnel a couple hundred feet overhead. Scared the crap out of me as there was nowhere to go but fortunately it didn't touch down for about another 50 miles and then only in open fields. I think the scariest storm I have ever been through was the Green Derecho of July 16, 1980. I had been off work only a short time (midnight shift) and was watching a movie when I noticed that outside my apartment the color was weird and went to the doorwall. The clouds were a dirty fishbowl green and quite literally boiling, like at a high boil at that. At first there was no sound at all, not even insects then the wind started howling like a freight train and I saw limbs snapping off trees and carports peeling off their supports. I went out in the hall where several others were gathered. A couple minutes later a guy from the third floor yelled down begging for help as his roof was gone so some of us trooped up to rescue his Tv, stereo system, etc and take them down to the storage lockers in the basement where we stayed for the rest of the storm. The wind was horrifically loud and seemed to go on forever. When it was over it was like a huge, many miles wide tornado had plowed through the area. I was living in Canton, MI at the time and it looked worse than Punta Gorda after Ian. My roommate's mother had a house only a couple of miles away and it took us almost an hour to get there because of the debris and downed power lines everywhere. She had a huge willow tree that was down parallel to the house. If it had fallen on the house she would have been dead. I never want to see another one of those things.
So what you saw the day you were driving was a funnel cloud. A funnel has to touch down to be called a tornado. Back in 1980, they didn't even call those storms derechos. They were known as squall lines or something back then. Sometimes, they are nicknamed lans canes, or inland hurricanes. They can be sort of hurricane-like in the high wind speeds and the type of destruction done; as you say, it was worse than the destruction in Punta Gorda after Ian. I am glad your people were not injured. What a storm you had!!