Hurricane Warnings up for the Florida Keys

'I wanted to take this post to talk about something that has had me wondering for some time.
It’s about the Bahamian geography, as we all no the Bahamas consist of shallow banks of white sand
Held in by shallow barrier reefs most of the outer Bahamian islands are coral islands, and the inner
Islands well they are coral as well it seems sandier in my experience. The map below was a map of the
Bahamas I could not find a chart on the net so I colored water depths in my self.
The areas in white are less then 25 feet deep, and in most cases are less then 10 feet.
I used dark blue just as comparison because when swimming in the white you can swim straight off into
The blue, 25 feet to over 5’000 feet in less then ¼ of a mile. Essentially I think as most of the Bahamas as one big
Land Just a couple of feet under the water further there are banks that extend further se off the
Turks and caaicos islands that go all the way to the island of hati and are generally less then 100 feet
If you like surfing, the biggest wave in the world breaks in the Bahamas on any given Monday.
When on the island of Grand Turk in the Turk and Caicos Islands you can see Cuba and Haiti
Due to their mountain terrains
The Bahamian passage is in the northern Bahamas its deep water all the way 5’000 feet or more
And connects the Gulf Stream to the Atlantic, in large hurricanes that are heading towards the Bahamas such as
Floyd, Isabel, Andrew, swell will migrate through this channel towards parts of ft. Lauderdale for instance
During Isabel’s approach at the Bahamas Key West to ft. pierce is flat calm except for a 30 mile stretch in
From ft. Lauderdale to pompano beach it’s was 10 feet.

[I’ve always wondered what all this shallow water can do I think in the case of Frances, it aided in weakening
Him but in small storms that are moving faster such as Andrew or Jeanne it actually helped to strengthen storm.
Joe bastardi said last year during Frances that and in cases of Katrina with a smaller eye the storms feel their way
Through the island chain through the deep island passages.

Just thought id share some thoughts I had.
I may go deeper in to it later when things cool down in the tropics.

Edited by Robert (Mon Sep 19 2005 03:10 PM)

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