You see these little flaps on my head?  No?  Maybe your web camera isn't on.  Right here, behind my ears.  Still, no?  Huh? I thought I felt gills sprouting back there.  My mistake.

There should be.  Since it started raining around 3 am on Friday, we, in Navarre proper, have had 7.52 inches of rain.  That's in just over 76 hours.  Everything is wet.  The world smells damp and musty.  The electric box alarms are blinking and honking all over the neighborhoods.  I'm amazed we still have cable, phone, Internet, and electric. 

Last night's storms boiled up around 10:45pm and just kept forming over us, and then formed a long line of thunderstorms that trained over us for hours.  The hardest rain coming after midnight.  Mercy.  It sounded like I had a tin sheet roof!

I had to get up several times last night to turn off the rainfall rate alarm on my weather system.  It doesn't even THINK of beeping me out of slumber until we hit a rainfall rate of over 8.5 inches per hour. 

The rain was so bad this weekend that the local critters are using the road as high and dry ground.  I haven't seen the local bear and cubs yet, but she'll pull them out of the cedar swamp with far less rain than this.  While out driving yesterday, we came across this menacing beastie. 

He put on quite the show up against a large truck.  He and hit little friends were hanging out on the road, in the middle of the road.  Maybe it was his turn to play crossing guard, or maybe he lost a bet.  Anyway, after we got him home and put him in a large plastic drinking cup so he could travel North via Skype and freak out the cousins, HE starting dropping babies in the cup.  Huh, who knew?

The creepy critter clicked and snapped away every time you passed the counter in the darkened bathroom to go down the hall.  (Where we banished her to until the rain let up enough to put her back in the ditch.) Icky little mud bug.  You'll be happy to know that she and her little spawn are free again. 

Now if I can just get all the frogs out of the garage.  They're frogs, for crying out loud!  They're supposed to LIKE the water. 

Sigh.  My family up North joke that I'm living in a Mutual of Omaha world.  Pretty much.

Guess what?  It's going to rain today.  I know, how shocking.

It's better than the western Caribbean.  Hurricane Earl shifted further to the west last night and is predicted to become a major hurricane.  He should take a turn to the north later today or tomorrow thanks to a trough pushing off the East coast.  However, he may have gone far enough west to set sights on NC or further up the coast.  Time will tell.  Until he actually turns North, anyone is fair game.

Even if he missed a land strike altogether, the rip current risk is unbelievably high along the entire Eastern seaboard.  I was shocked to see so many people out in the water on the tv news.  Ridiculous!

We too are still at red flag.  Although I don't foresee many people going out in this weather anyway, sans the surfers.  Some day we will make it back outside to the sunny warm beaches!

Have a great day everyone.

Can I even begin to tell you how much I am NOT a morning person?!  It's not that I cannot appreciate a stunning sunrise, but a sunset is so much easier for me to enjoy, seeing as I've probably been conscious for over 10 hours at that point.  Until now that is.  With the crisp Fall air, the rustle of leaves in the morning breeze, the sweet smell of dry corn on the morning mist, fresh picked apples on the kitchen table, kids in their cute little plaid skirts and long white socks and mary janes.........OH wait...wrong state.  I'm in flip flop country!

I begrudgingly fell out of bed this morning at 5:45, which is after the bedside alarm went off, but seconds before the loud and annoying alarm I use on my cellphone as back up went off.  I swear I heard my sleep number bed say, "what? Where are you GOING?  Is the house on fire?  Take me with you!"

No, the house wasn't on fire.  It's the first day of school.  I joyous time in thousands of households across the state.  (Unless you are a resident of the county next door, then you've been at this for two weeks already !)  Yes, that day were the smell of peanut butter sandwiches on fresh white bread pervades the house, new crayons, new pencils, where new clothes, fresh haircuts, and eager and sleepy faces greet the flash bulbs before the great yellow beast pulls up the haul them away for 8 hours. 

I'm lucky enough to have an older child.  Not old enough to let him drive to campus, but old enough that he can get himself up, dressed, and fed.  My job?  To make sure he's wearing pants, is somewhat colour coordinated, and has his book bag.  I also walk him to the bus stop.  It's a long walk, and even this time of year it was dark, the sun barely above the horizon.  The birds weren't even awake.  Heaven knows I'm not.  I do know he got onto a large yellow vehicle, I'm pretty sure it was the school bus, as our trash truck is blue.  It did have blinky lights, so it COULD have been a yellow UFO. Anyway, I think about my friends this morning.  Two have sent their kiddos off to college for their freshman year, one is either weepy at sending off that kindergarten bus, or is breaking out the champagne - I'll find out later.

What on Earth does this have to do with the beach?  Not much.  It's just one of those monumental days of the year.  There is a little known tradition on Navarre Beach.  The first day of school brings out the mommy brigade!  We come down in the morning with a fresh cup of heaven and just sit and watch the waves and enjoy the quiet.  The kids aren't there screaming.  The tourists have left, until the snowbird migration,  and we look forward to cooler weather and our beach. (Don't get us wrong, we LOVE our tourists! It's just a transitional break back to normality and a much slower pace for us.) Much slower and we'll be going backwards!  Sigh. 

Unless you are me, and then you are looking ahead to the peak of hurricane season.  Danielle is ramping up in the Atlantic as we speak. As of this point she is still PROJECTED to say out to sea.  A quick vacay in Bermuda may be a poor choice this weekend, but as of RIGHT now she has not set her sights on either US or the Eastern US coast.  We all know that can change.  And we all know how fast things can pop up in our own backyard this time of year.  The PEAK of the season is still three weeks away.

I see on the web camera that the BP crews are out today WEST of the pier.  Good to see them out there in the daylight again.  Today has another heat advisory stuck to it.  OC in this heat and humidity, everything sticks to everything.  We're looking at another day with a heat index of over 105!  So take care of yourself.

The surf looks pleasant for the day, the chance of rain the whole week is low.  (YAY, for our landscaper.)  Our turtles are still brewing under the warm sand.  I've had no reports of tar balls, except the occasional ones that pops up from surf.  Crossing fingers.  OH, remember the log book stop at the firehouse is no longer needed.  Just email your hours to me at the surfnavarrebeach@gmail.com link and let me know when, where, and how long you were out.  I'll email everyone the day before I send in the report to the county as a reminder in case you forgot to report some hours.

Here's a little shot of an amazing sunset from the other night.  I hope you got to see it in person, the very AIR was yellow, then orange, then FIREY PINK.  It was great.

So with that, I'm heading out with my cold bottle of water and join the other mommies on the sand.  Or maybe I'll drag out the fishing rod.....or maybe...YAWWWWN......would a nap be out of the question?

Good morning all !

It seems we had 7 views from Latvia last night! Interesting.  Labdien! Kā jums klājas?
Thunderstorms should be bopping around our area all day.  Strong winds from the south will keep the surf high, but it shouldn't be AS bad as it has been the past few days.  The Rip Current risk is still HIGH.  And as for an added bonus, the temps are going to start climbing again, mix in the higher humidities from a surface low pressure system, and we're going to start looking at heat indext temps near 110 again.  I know, I know, just keep telling yourself it's AUGUST in Florida. 

Coastal state waters offshore of Escambia County are now reopened for harvesting of finfish, crabs and shrimp, but NO to oysters.

BP clean up crews continue to patrol the beach.  Yesterday they worked from late afternoon until the weeeeeee hours of the morning.  They are watching for and cleaning up any old weathered tar that comes ashore from our latest high surf action.

While out last night, I saw amazing things again.  People in the water, with red flags flying, no lifeguards in the towers (after hours).  These were not just the surfers that come out with every storm, but families with small children.  I kept waiting to hear screaming over the roaring surf.  Thank goodness it never came.  They were lucky. I don't know what the solution is, but there has to be one.  Maybe if the flags were lower, like at some of the condos so they actually smack people in the head? Force them to take notice?  Probably not.  Ocean blindness.

Anyway, on this slow day, I leave you with some closing shots of Navarre Beach.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Perfection.

Little 10 inch bonita.  You should have SEEN the number of baby sharks caught last night! I stopped counting at 10 in one hour.

TD 5 Wednesday-dissapated

From NHS and NOAA; 4 PM CDT Wednesday

We now have a High Surf Advisory, A Flash Flood Watch, and a Coastal Flooding Message.

...HEAVY RAINS FORECAST TO OVERSPREAD THE GULF COAST THROUGH FRIDAY

AFTERNOON...

.THE BROAD CENTER OF A LARGE TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE IS FORECAST TO
MIGRATE NORTHWESTWARD OFF THE GULF AND SLOWLY INLAND THE NEXT COUPLE
OF DAYS. WITH THE FORECAST CALLING FOR A SLOW MOVEMENT...THE
POTENTIAL EXISTS FOR LOCALLY HEAVY RAINS...IN BANDS...TO REPEATEDLY
MOVE OVER THE SAME AREAS OVER PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST MISSISSIPPI
EASTWARD INTO THE COASTAL COUNTIES THROUGH FRIDAY. AS SOILS BECOME
SATURATED THE RISK OF FLASH FLOODING WILL INCREASE OVER THE WATCH AREA.


THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MOBILE HAS ISSUED A



* FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST ALABAMA...
NORTHWEST FLORIDA AND SOUTHEAST MISSISSIPPI...INCLUDING THE
FOLLOWING AREAS...IN SOUTHWEST ALABAMA...LOWER BALDWIN...LOWER
MOBILE...UPPER BALDWIN AND UPPER MOBILE. IN NORTHWEST
FLORIDA...COASTAL ESCAMBIA...COASTAL OKALOOSA...COASTAL SANTA
ROSA...INLAND ESCAMBIA...INLAND OKALOOSA AND INLAND SANTA
ROSA. IN SOUTHEAST MISSISSIPPI...GEORGE AND STONE.

* FROM MIDNIGHT CDT TONIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY AFTERNOON
* THE HEAVIER RAINS ARE POSSIBLE GENERALLY SOUTH OF A LINE FROM
WIGGINS MISSISSIPPI TO CITRONELLE...BAY MINETTE ALABAMA TO
CRESTVIEW FLORIDA. LATEST FORECASTS CALL FOR STORM TOTAL RAINS OF 3
TO 5 INCHES DURING THE DURATION OF WATCH. A FEW AREAS MAY SEE LOCALLY
HIGHER AMOUNTS OF AROUND 6 INCHES.

...HIGH SURF ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM CDT FRIDAY...

MODERATE SWELLS ARE FORECAST TO CONTINUE BREAKING ONSHORE ALONG THE
BEACHES OF ALABAMA AND THE WESTERN FLORIDA PANHANDLE THROUGH FRIDAY
MORNING...CREATING DANGEROUS RIP CURRENT AND HAZARDOUS SWIMMING
CONDITIONS.

THE HIGH SURF WILL LIKELY RESULT IN SOME MINOR BEACH EROSION...AS
WELL AS NUISANCE COASTAL FLOODING AS WASH MOVES OVER JETTIES AND
EXPOSED LOW LYING AREAS ALONG THE IMMEDIATE COASTLINE. MANY LOCATIONS
ALONG THE COAST...INCLUDING BAYS AND RIVERS...WILL LIKELY HAVE TIDE
LEVELS 1 TO 2 FEET ABOVE NORMAL THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING. THE
PREDICTION FOR HIGH TIDES NEAR 1 FOOT ARE FORECAST TO OCCUR AROUND
100 PM THURSDAY. THE NEAP TIDE CYCLE WILL HELP ALLEVIATE ANY
SIGNIFICANT COASTAL HAZARDS.
THE LOCATIONS MOST PRONE TO MINOR COASTAL FLOODING ARE ALONG THE OLD
MOBILE CAUSEWAY AND THE WEST END OF DAUPHIN ISLAND IN SOUTHWEST
ALABAMA...AND FORT PICKENS STATE PARK WEST OF PENSACOLA FLORIDA.