Quick-hitting Mindy heads out to sea after Florida landfall
By
Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist &
Brian Lada, AccuWeather meteorologist and senior content editor
Updated Sep 10, 2021 11:54 AM EDT
Tropical Storm Mindy brought heavy rain and strong winds to the Florida Panhandle on Sept. 8.
Less than five hours after taking shape over the Gulf of Mexico, Mindy made landfall along the Florida Panhandle Wednesday night as a tropical storm in almost the same exact spot that Tropical Storm Fred hit less than one month ago.
Moving ashore under the cover of darkness, Mindy unleashed gusty downpours across the Florida Panhandle with the worst conditions hitting around Panama City and Apalachicola. Video from the region showed a tree rustling in the wind as heavy rain soaked the coastal cities.
Mindy weakened after moving inland, becoming a tropical depression before daybreak Thursday, but it still continued to spread heavy rain across parts of southeastern Georgia and coastal South Carolina and North Carolina. AccuWeather meteorologists have rated Mindy as a less than one on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes.
The storm has already traversed northern Florida and southern Georgia with the center swirling over the Atlantic Ocean, but was still close enough to the coast to cause some issues into Thursday night. As of 11 p.m. EDT Thursday, Mindy had become a tropical rainstorm and was about 285 miles east of Charleston, South Carolina, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph.
Mindy can be seen swirling off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. (NOAA/GOES-EAST)
Mindy quickly organized and ramped up before hitting the Florida Panhandle as a tropical storm. The storm was officially named at 5 p.m. EDT Wednesday, and at 9:15 p.m. EDT, it made landfall at St. Vincent Island, Florida. Sustained winds peaked at 45 mph, but a few wind gusts topped out around 60 mph.
In doing so, Mindy became the seventh landfalling tropical system to hit the U.S. so far during the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. It also was not the first storm to make landfall in this part of Florida.
It was not as strong as Fred, which made landfall about 15 miles away at Cape San Blas, Florida, on Aug. 16 with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph.
The storm popped up so quickly that it didn't churn up much in terms of storm surge, but heavy rain led to some flooding issues along the Florida Panhandle.
Tallahassee, Florida, measured over 2.5 inches of rain as Mindy unloaded heavy tropical rain over the city late Wednesday into early Thursday morning, but radar estimates showed rainfall totals between 3 and 4 inches northwest of the city. Similar radar estimates were observed around Panama City.
Savannah, Georgia, was one of the wettest spots in the Peach State due to Mindy with around 1 inch of rain falling in less than 24 hours.
Fortunately, downpours and winds associated with Mindy stayed well to the east of areas in Louisiana that were hardest hit by Hurricane Ida in late August. Nearly 200,000 utility customers remained without power in southeastern Louisiana as of Friday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.
Even areas that took a direct hit from Mindy were left largely unscathed. Only a few hundred power outages were reported in the Florida Panhandle Thursday morning with power restored to a majority of customers by midday.
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AccuWeather forecasters have been monitoring this part of the Atlantic basin since late August for this particular system.
Even as it moves away from land, it could influence the immediate Atlantic Coast of the southeastern U.S. with rough surf and rip currents. These will be compounded by Hurricane Larry, which is much larger and much stronger a few hundred miles to the east of Mindy.
Infrared satellite imagery taken on Sept. 9, 2021 showed the proximity of Tropical Depression Mindy and Hurricane Larry.
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One of the main factors that contributed to Mindy's quick formation was the warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
"The center of this [system] was over some of the deepest warm water of the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday," AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said.
Water temperatures in part of the central Gulf of Mexico were in the middle to upper 80s F, and the warm waters extended to the depths of the Gulf. When water temperatures are 78 degrees or warmer, conditions are considered to be favorable for tropical development. When the water is warm through a deep layer, it is less likely to be cooled from the churning winds on the surface.
Dry air is already filtering in across the Southeastern states in the wake of Mindy, allowing the region to dry out following tropical downpours.
Steering breezes are forecast to guide this feature out into the western Atlantic over the weekend, where it would be a diminishing threat to the U.S.
Elsewhere, in the Atlantic, Larry will remain the strongest tropical system on the maps into Friday night, prior to a close encounter or landfall on the island of Newfoundland, Canada.
A new threat may arise in western Gulf of Mexico waters from this weekend into early next week, but the momentum from the trade winds may keep the system too close to land -- a factor that could limit the potential for it to develop further. Winds could also continue to push it westward over the continent.
Regardless of whether or not this system develops, there is the potential for torrential rain to spread northward from eastern Mexico to southeastern Texas later this weekend to early next week. Enough rain may fall to lead to flooding.
Farther to the east over the Atlantic, tropical waves will continue to push westward from Africa. There is a significant chance a more robust wave in the train catches on and slowly develops this weekend to early next week in the vicinity of the Cabo Verde Islands, which are located off the west coast of Africa.
The next tropical storm to form in the Atlantic basin will take the name Nicholas.
As of Friday, Sept. 10, the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season has spawned 13 tropical storms, of which five have gone on to strengthen into hurricanes. Three of those hurricanes became major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher).
This is well ahead of schedule with the 13th named storm typically developing around Oct. 24, according to Colorado State University hurricane specialist Phil Klotzbach.
With the peak of hurricane season only near the halfway point (Sept. 10), plenty more tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes are foreseen this year as 2021 remains on a well-above-average pace. During an average season, there are 14 named systems with seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes.
Additional reporting by AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Lada.
For the latest weather news check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, DIRECTVstream, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeatherNOW is streaming on Roku and XUMO.
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News / Hurricane
Quick-hitting Mindy heads out to sea after Florida landfall
By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist & Brian Lada, AccuWeather meteorologist and senior content editor
Updated Sep 10, 2021 11:54 AM EDT
Tropical Storm Mindy brought heavy rain and strong winds to the Florida Panhandle on Sept. 8.
Less than five hours after taking shape over the Gulf of Mexico, Mindy made landfall along the Florida Panhandle Wednesday night as a tropical storm in almost the same exact spot that Tropical Storm Fred hit less than one month ago.
Moving ashore under the cover of darkness, Mindy unleashed gusty downpours across the Florida Panhandle with the worst conditions hitting around Panama City and Apalachicola. Video from the region showed a tree rustling in the wind as heavy rain soaked the coastal cities.
Mindy weakened after moving inland, becoming a tropical depression before daybreak Thursday, but it still continued to spread heavy rain across parts of southeastern Georgia and coastal South Carolina and North Carolina. AccuWeather meteorologists have rated Mindy as a less than one on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes.
The storm has already traversed northern Florida and southern Georgia with the center swirling over the Atlantic Ocean, but was still close enough to the coast to cause some issues into Thursday night. As of 11 p.m. EDT Thursday, Mindy had become a tropical rainstorm and was about 285 miles east of Charleston, South Carolina, with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph.
Mindy can be seen swirling off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. (NOAA/GOES-EAST)
Mindy quickly organized and ramped up before hitting the Florida Panhandle as a tropical storm. The storm was officially named at 5 p.m. EDT Wednesday, and at 9:15 p.m. EDT, it made landfall at St. Vincent Island, Florida. Sustained winds peaked at 45 mph, but a few wind gusts topped out around 60 mph.
In doing so, Mindy became the seventh landfalling tropical system to hit the U.S. so far during the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. It also was not the first storm to make landfall in this part of Florida.
It was not as strong as Fred, which made landfall about 15 miles away at Cape San Blas, Florida, on Aug. 16 with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph.
The storm popped up so quickly that it didn't churn up much in terms of storm surge, but heavy rain led to some flooding issues along the Florida Panhandle.
Tallahassee, Florida, measured over 2.5 inches of rain as Mindy unloaded heavy tropical rain over the city late Wednesday into early Thursday morning, but radar estimates showed rainfall totals between 3 and 4 inches northwest of the city. Similar radar estimates were observed around Panama City.
Savannah, Georgia, was one of the wettest spots in the Peach State due to Mindy with around 1 inch of rain falling in less than 24 hours.
Fortunately, downpours and winds associated with Mindy stayed well to the east of areas in Louisiana that were hardest hit by Hurricane Ida in late August. Nearly 200,000 utility customers remained without power in southeastern Louisiana as of Friday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.
Even areas that took a direct hit from Mindy were left largely unscathed. Only a few hundred power outages were reported in the Florida Panhandle Thursday morning with power restored to a majority of customers by midday.
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AccuWeather forecasters have been monitoring this part of the Atlantic basin since late August for this particular system.
Even as it moves away from land, it could influence the immediate Atlantic Coast of the southeastern U.S. with rough surf and rip currents. These will be compounded by Hurricane Larry, which is much larger and much stronger a few hundred miles to the east of Mindy.
Infrared satellite imagery taken on Sept. 9, 2021 showed the proximity of Tropical Depression Mindy and Hurricane Larry.
One of the main factors that contributed to Mindy's quick formation was the warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
"The center of this [system] was over some of the deepest warm water of the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday," AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said.
Water temperatures in part of the central Gulf of Mexico were in the middle to upper 80s F, and the warm waters extended to the depths of the Gulf. When water temperatures are 78 degrees or warmer, conditions are considered to be favorable for tropical development. When the water is warm through a deep layer, it is less likely to be cooled from the churning winds on the surface.
Dry air is already filtering in across the Southeastern states in the wake of Mindy, allowing the region to dry out following tropical downpours.
Steering breezes are forecast to guide this feature out into the western Atlantic over the weekend, where it would be a diminishing threat to the U.S.
Elsewhere, in the Atlantic, Larry will remain the strongest tropical system on the maps into Friday night, prior to a close encounter or landfall on the island of Newfoundland, Canada.
A new threat may arise in western Gulf of Mexico waters from this weekend into early next week, but the momentum from the trade winds may keep the system too close to land -- a factor that could limit the potential for it to develop further. Winds could also continue to push it westward over the continent.
Regardless of whether or not this system develops, there is the potential for torrential rain to spread northward from eastern Mexico to southeastern Texas later this weekend to early next week. Enough rain may fall to lead to flooding.
Farther to the east over the Atlantic, tropical waves will continue to push westward from Africa. There is a significant chance a more robust wave in the train catches on and slowly develops this weekend to early next week in the vicinity of the Cabo Verde Islands, which are located off the west coast of Africa.
The next tropical storm to form in the Atlantic basin will take the name Nicholas.
As of Friday, Sept. 10, the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season has spawned 13 tropical storms, of which five have gone on to strengthen into hurricanes. Three of those hurricanes became major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher).
This is well ahead of schedule with the 13th named storm typically developing around Oct. 24, according to Colorado State University hurricane specialist Phil Klotzbach.
With the peak of hurricane season only near the halfway point (Sept. 10), plenty more tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes are foreseen this year as 2021 remains on a well-above-average pace. During an average season, there are 14 named systems with seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes.
Additional reporting by AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Lada.
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