CoconutCandy
(User)
Mon Aug 27 2012 05:54 PM
Isaac's "Haze". Florida Keys Getting the "Shaft".

I've been noticing on visible imagery today a sort of 'haze' surrounding the Florida Keys.

Thinking perhaps it was just an artifact of the site I was viewing, I quickly checked a half dozen others. And all the sites I viewed showed the same thing:

A sort of "nebulous haze" engulfing the Keys, extending out to perhaps 5 or 10 miles, on both sides of the Keys.



And, on one of the "high zoom factor" satellites I looked at, one could even see a "skinny black line" (as Max Mayfield used to say) *snaking right down the center* of the heretofore unidentified nebulosity, making it appear that some sort of "shaft" had enveloped the notorious Overseas Highway.



Thinking, at first, that it was moisture and evaporation steaming off the Keys (after the drenching it received yesterday), but then wondering WHY it was roughly equidistant on BOTH sides of the road, so to speak, when the stiff southerly wind currently blowing over the Keys should be displacing it towards the northern side of the Islands.

More recently, I'm wondering if it might be *Sand and Sediment* in the water, stirred up by TS Isaac's passage just south of the Keys yesterday, and that it just has not mixed out and fallen back to the bottom quite yet. Your thoughts?




MichaelA
(Weather Analyst)
Mon Aug 27 2012 08:13 PM
Re: Isaac's "Haze". Florida Keys Getting the "Shaft".

Sand and sediment and rough surf.

CoconutCandy
(User)
Mon Aug 27 2012 09:03 PM
Re: Isaac's "Haze". Florida Keys Getting the "Shaft".

Mahalos Michael. Amazing the satellite can pick that up from 22,500 miles in space.

About how many days does it take for all that sand to settle out? Did it cause significant beach erosion in the Keys?

As a 3 year resident of Coconut Grove (South of Miami, for those who don't know), from '78 - '80, I never experience anything like that, with the exception of Hurricane Allen in '80. We were in Key West and told to evacuate.

It was a VERY windy drive back to Miami on the overseas highway, but we were already home by the time Allen made his closest approach, passing well south of Florida (and Cuba) on his way to Southern Texas. (Fortunately, I was long gone before Andrew's devastation in '92.)

As a true weather buff, I MISS my days in Florida, with it's afternoon thunderstorms and the occasional threat of a tropical storm or hurricane. I'm sure many who went through the Stormy Seasons of '04 and '05 will think I'm crazy, but I would have liked to have been there for the action, (safe and sound in Coconut Grove!)

Hawaii is nice and beautiful, to be sure, but *pretty boring*, weather-wise, for most of the year.

Hey! They don't call me Stormin' Norman for nothing! lol


PS: In case you missed the humor in my post's title, Isaac Hayes had a smash hit in the 70's titled "Shaft".


MichaelA
(Weather Analyst)
Mon Aug 27 2012 09:20 PM
Re: Isaac's "Haze". Florida Keys Getting the "Shaft".

I haven't heard anything about erosion/damage from the keys. From my one trip to Key West many years ago, I recall that the "beach" on KW was very small and mostly rock and coral. The upper and middle keys have much better beaches. The sediment will take a few weeks to settle out or disperse.

cjzydeco
(Weather Guru)
Mon Aug 27 2012 11:02 PM
Re: Isaac's "Haze". Florida Keys Getting the "Shaft".

Have you checked older satellite views when there was no tropical activity? Could it just be the submerged shallow-water "spine" that the islands sit on?

danielwAdministrator
(Moderator)
Tue Aug 28 2012 01:28 AM
Re: Isaac's "Haze". Florida Keys Getting the "Shaft".

I believe it's the shoal around the Keys. Seen below during cooler weather.



DeLandT
(Verified CFHC User)
Tue Aug 28 2012 03:18 AM
Re: Isaac's "Haze". Florida Keys Getting the "Shaft".

That is the Shoal around the keys. It is always visible. I dont think that sediment would be visable ever in that area due to the shoal.

B.C.Francis
(Storm Tracker)
Tue Aug 28 2012 11:02 PM
Re: Isaac's "Haze". Florida Keys Getting the "Shaft".

How`s the weather shaping up in Central Florida for the Labor Day Weekend? Good weather means good revenue. No Sun No Fun


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