Fay the "Jokester" - FLHurricane.com

At least that was the original moniker that was given to this storm with its erratic movements off the east coast of central Florida - but that has changed. I'm sure that many of you have heard of the Bermuda High and the Icelandic Low. Rumor has it that some meteorologists are considering a new semi-permanent pressure center that will become the standard against which any future systems will be measured. It will be known as the Florida Atlantic Yardstick - or "FAY" for short.

Realistically, Fay is nothing to joke about. From Naples to Melbourne and northward along the coast, folks have been contending with her wrath. Tornadoes along her path and in her outer bands and rainfall amounts never before experienced by most Floridians have certainly placed Fay in the record books and in the minds of thousands who have suffered from her onslaught. Fay needs to be seriously considered as the second tropical storm to have its named 'retired'.

At 11am this morning Fay was still stationary about 15 miles offshore Daytona Beach with 50 knot sustained winds, although since that time she seems to have started a slow drift to the west or west northwest and , with luck, this motion will continue as a building high pressure area to her north begins to nudge her westward. Fay is expected to slowly move westward - with emphasis on the word 'slowly' - and she should be located near Archer, Florida (southwest of Gainesville), at 8am Friday morning as a 40 knot tropical storm. Her expected future track should take Fay (as a Tropical Depression) along or just offshore the south coast of the Florida panhandle toward the Pensacola area in a few days.

The slow forward motion will generate additional rainfall for east central Florida tonight - one to three inches more in southern Brevard County, three to five inches more in northern Brevard County, five to eight inches more in Volusia and Flagler Counties and up to a foot of rain in locations along her path through the northern Florida peninsula. Winds will be strong north of the center but flooding is still the primary concern associated with Fay. So far I've recorded 15.83 inches in northwest Melbourne. Other storm totals include 15.26 at the Melbourne Airport, 18.70 in Satellite Beach and an unconfirmed report of over 26.2 inches at Windover Farms in northwest Melbourne.

Tropical Storm Warnings remain in place from Ft. Pierce northward along the Florida east coast - and they have been in place for three days - and that is something else that I've never seen before. Fay has been a difficult storm to deal with meteorologically, and any track forecasts that were accurate were purely coincidental

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