Currently filming strong Tropical Storm Beryl moving onshore in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Winds have increased over the last hour, kicking the surf up higher and blowing sand down the beach. The worst looks to be moving in after dark, so I'll be hanging around the more lit up area's of Jax beach, or until the power goes out.

I will try to post more pictures later tonight, and will have a full video and picture gallery up tomorrow once I return to South Florida. Keep checking this post for updates overnight and my Twitter feed: @stormvisuals

 - Jeff Gammons

The National Hurricane Center has just upgraded the strong tropical disturbance off the southeast Carolina's to Sub-Tropical Storm Beryl with 45mph winds.  Beryl is the second named tropical cyclone of the pre-hurricane season, which doesn't begin until June 1, 2012. Beryl still remains somewhat disorganized tonight, but has been gradually organizing throughout the afternoon and evening hours, with a more developed low-level structure per satellite images and surface observations to confirm winds and pressure.

Newly named Tropical Storm Beryl as seen on KMHX - Morehead City long-range radar late Friday night - May 25, 2012.

Tropical Storm warnings and watches have also been issued for parts of South Carolina southward to northeast Florida (including Jacksonville) as TS Beryl is forecast to begin turning back towards the west-southwest on Saturday and track near the Florida / Georgia border region.

Beryl first forecast track map from the National Hurricane Center

Chase Looking More Likely Late Weekend

I am closely watch Tropical Storm Beryl for a likely chase intercept in northeast Florida or southeast Georgia late Sunday into Monday. I'll have more updates tomorrow concerning my plans, and the latest on Beryl during this early start to the season.

Possible interesting weekend ahead weather-wise, as we could see our second pre-season tropical storm (Beryl) form off the southeast United States. The elongated and disorganized tropical disturbance that tracked just offshore Miami yesterday producing flooding, is now located northwest of the Bahamas and remains unimpressive this morning.

Updated 7:34pm - IR satellite image of a developing Invest 94L off the southeast coast. - May 25, 2012

Weather computer forecast models are in fairly good agreement of at least something either subtropical or fully warm core tropical developing over the Memorial Day weekend southeast of the Carolina's once again. Last week brought Tropical Storm Alberto that formed in the same region.

WHILE THE ORGANIZATION OF THIS SYSTEM HAS NOT IMPROVED OVER THE PAST FEW HOURS...ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BECOME MORE CONDUCIVE FOR THE FORMATION OF A SUBTROPICAL OR TROPICAL CYCLONE BY SATURDAY OR SUNDAY. - National Hurricane Center

Watching For Possible Development Late Weekend

The current hostile upper-level winds are forecast to begin relaxing later today and into Saturday, and this will allow the disturbance to get more organized on Sunday. A blocking high pressure system is forecast to build in ahead of the potential cyclone forcing it back west-southwestward. Right now, it is way too early to know if and how well developed this system could become, but I will definitely be closely watching over the long holiday weekend. If the system does develop into a more organized tropical storm and threatens northeast Florida or southeast Georgia, I might make the trip north to intercept the system.

I will update again over the weekend if things become more developed.

Update 3:00p ET - Latest visible satellite loops this afternoon show the first signs that the low pressure system beginning to slowly organize near 31N/76W. This will be a slow process over the next 48 hours as shear remains moderate, but it looks like it has slowed some in its forward motion to the northeast and trying to consolidate more. We'll continue to monitor to see if this is short-lived or more of a trend going into the evening.   Nevertheless, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina residents should keep an eye on this system as well.

Update 6:15p ET - Going into the early evening hours now, and the sun is setting over our invest tropical system. The last few visible images are showing continued slow development, with more curved deep convection near the low and mid-level center. Buoy's in the area continued to report winds gusting near gale force and pressures falling.

Visible satellite showing the recent improved overall structure to the developing storm.

Update 10:24p ET - The system is being upgraded to Tropical Storm Beryl at 11pm ET.

Looking NNE - Developing wall cloud with strong rotation along US 411.

The storm first initiated in the northern part of the county and slowly tracked southeastward. At the same time, a large multi-complex of thunderstorms was ongoing over Palm Beach County, and this area of weather produced a large stout outflow boundary that shot off to the northwest over the lake and western Martin County.

As the cell moved into the Okeechobee City region, it still looked liner and "outflow'ish", but I could see just to the east a new flat base developing on the leading edge of the older core. So, I relocated southeast down U.S. 411 to near the waterway lock (S-191) on the rim of the lake and a few miles to the north of 15A.

I watched as the cell continued southeastward, and beginning to interact with the strong outflow boundary coming in from the east-southeast. This is where the storm structure took a drastic change over just a few minutes, with a wall cloud developing with rotation just north of my location.

In the picture above, I'm looking north-northeast into the area of strong rotation, with a rain/hail curtains wrapping in behind and to my left. Lightning was intense, and my surface winds quickly shifted from the east to northwest about the time of this photo. Also, I could hear the tones coming from the radio that The National Weather Service in Melbourne had just issued a tornado warning on this storm.

AT 328 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE METEOROLOGISTS DETECTED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO NEAR FOUR SEASONS ESTATES...MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 10  MPH. - NWS MLB

I continued to shoot off pictures (should have shot video too, ugh) while the rotation tightened a little more. I could hear and see the heavy core coming in from behind and packed up once again to relocated down the highway. I drove southeast again down U.S. 411 keeping close eyes of the wall cloud and  my road network. When I got down to 15A, the storm looked like it was struggling again with outflow winds overtaking the weakening inflow. Also, more rain had developed to the southeast of the cell and that likely was disrupting the inflow as well at this point.

Doppler Radar base velocity and reflectivity images via "RadarScope" on the iPad3.

The cell continued to try and maintain it's rotation but was having a very hard time, and it was losing its structure almost as fast as it developed 15 minutes earlier. Thankfully, the storm never produced a tornado on the ground, and I was very impressed on how fast the NWS in Melbourne issued the warning while I was watching the storm structure unfold in front of me.

Today brought more strong to low-end severe storms to south and central Florida. Unlike the last few days, storms were a little more isolated as drier air moved into the region, but with stronger surface heating under full sun, it wasn't long before cell's began to develop with some becoming severe.

The east coast sea-breeze boundary was more defined compared to the last few afternoon's, and penetrated further inland interacting with the lake breeze boundaries setting off the first storms of the day. These initial thunderstorms produced outflow boundaries tracking northwestward over western Palm Beach and Martin counties and converged with the west coast boundary.

This impressive convergence developed more robust convection into eastern Glades County, and this is where I first got on my cell of the day. It took a little while for the storm to become more surface-based, but once it got rooted it took off.

I chased the storm into Okeechobee and western St Lucie Counties, where it become more organized, and at times showed some signs of low-level rotation as it tracked east-northeastward, but would get undercut shortly after. The lightning was very intense, and I had only a few small opportunities to get out and roll video and shoot photos. Once the storm became more outflow dominate nearing the county line, it began producing some strong straight-line winds as I tried to stay ahead.

I finished off with a round of sunset shelf-cloud structure shots before packing it in for the day and heading home. I can't believe how active the rainy season has started off this year for the Sunshine State, have enjoyed it over the hot and dry weather of April.  

I anticipated this about an hour earlier and made my way out to Port Mayaca, which is located in Western Martin County on the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee. I watched as the storms continued eastward and intensified with a significant increase in lightning and storm structure. The National Weather Service in Melbourne, FL issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Western Martin County and I'm glad they did, as you can see in the photograph above an impressive rain-foot was developing and indicates a good chance severe straight-line winds are at the surface.

Yesterday was my first opportunity in May to chase storms here in Florida, with a very active east coast seabreeze boundary from Daytona Beach southward to N.W. Palm Beach County.

Storms developed early over East Central Florida up along the space Coast, which produced several outflow boundaries moving southward late in the day. These boundaries interacted with the East Coast Sea-breeze around the Lake Okeechobee region that set off several more rounds of storms, which is very common.

I wasn't sure where I was going to set up for the afternoon storms as there was so much multi-cluster convection bouncing around, but finally a more isolated cell developed over Central Martin County and caught my attention late in the day. The deep rock-hard convection wasn't hard see just to my east, and I knew that I needed to get underneath that storm as it was slowly propagating down the boundary around 5-10 mph. At this point I was already a little upset with myself knowing I should've been playing the boundary much earlier in the afternoon. 

The cell continued to propagate south-southeast down the boundary near Indiantown where I got on the storm and watched it for a good 20 minutes sustain itself. At the same time, an outflow boundary from thunderstorms near Clewiston was racing in from the southwest and was going to interact with my storm, so I opted to head southwest of Indiantown toward Port Mayaca. I got a few miles outside of town with a wide open view over the green sod fields and watched these two boundaries come together.

The convergence was very impressive, with a lot of upward motion directly above, and it wasn't long before the first cloud-to-ground lightning strikes started to flash around me. I knew with poor road options that I was going to get creamed by a new core that was developing overhead, and just searched for a decent spot to park and enjoy the show. The large flat thunderstorm base began to fill with rain curtains as the lightning increased in frequency. It only took about 10 to 15 minutes for the storm to start producing some isolated pea size hail and 40mph winds before transitioning to an outflow dominant storm.

It was all beautiful to me, with the sound of thunder crashing and the smell of tropical afternoon rains. The wet season typically starts in a few weeks, but it sure was a nice teaser for what's to come this summer, and I can't wait. More storms are expected today, and I plan to be out once again along the boundaries to see what mother nature will show off for me. I am also hoping for a few nocturnal lightning photography opportunities for the first time this spring season if any storms can hang on after dark. I'll keep you posted.

A very scary night, with tornadoes tracking across central and southern Kansas. Numerous tornadoes have been reported throughout the day, and early this evening more significant tornadoes were tracking across the more populated regions of Kansas.

Wichita, KS was under the gun with an approaching tornadic supercell between 10 PM and 11 PM local Saturday night, and it wasn't long before reports of a very large tornado was on the ground producing damage. There was good lead time, with spotter reports as the storm developed and moved through Conway Springs and Clearwater before approaching Wichita.

Radar Loop Paints A Tornado Situation In The Dark

I was able to capture some Doppler radar loops as the hook echo developed and moved toward Wichita. The radar at times displayed a classic hook echo noting that a large tornado was likely on the ground and producing damage.

As the hook echo crossed I-35 moving northeast, it wasn't long before new damage reports were being relayed to the local media and the National Weather Service. The storm continued moving northeast paralleling the Kansas Turnpike while approaching Andover and El Dorado with additional reports of power-flashes and damage to structures.

• Update: Late tonight another tornado looks to have hit Woodward, Oklahoma, with reports of homes damaged and people injured per NWS and media.

It's that time of year again when I begin to pay attention to the weather forecast models more closely for storms as spring approaches. The first day of spring is only a few days away, and a large portion of the United States has already been experiencing well above normal temperatures and intense severe weather with deadly tornadoes.

Drought Improving Slowly, Wildfires Minimal For Now

Here in Florida I have already been on a few short semi-severe storm chases over the last several weeks, and the recent heavy rains have helped to keep wildfires threats low across the Sunshine State. This time last year Florida was experiencing even more significant drought conditions, and the wildfire season was just getting started.

I spent much of March and April 2011 covering the drought and brushfires in central and southern FL, and was hoping for any type of rain action at that time. So far this year the fires have been sporadic, although there was a very dangerous wildfire that caused a deadly vehicle pileup on Interstate 95 earlier in the year in north Florida.

Ready For The Sea Breeze Boundary Action

I'm not sure if I'll make it out to Tornado Alley again this year (I really miss chasing in the Plains) with so many ongoing projects, but I would like to chase at least one impressive setup out there if possible. I'll likely chase a few Dixie Alley chases as well if it looks to be a significant event.

Without a doubt I'm ready for the lightning storm season to fully kick in, but that usually doesn't begin until the first few weeks of May. I'm hoping for an early onset of those 3 o'clock pm magic sea-breeze thunderstorms starting in April, but I know all too well that ridging can take hold over this long peninsula and increase the drought effects and bring on more wildfires... I'd rather have the rain.

So, my blog posts will once again become more frequent as the season develops, and I plan to include more video blog posts this season as many of you have requested this on Twitter.

Launched The New Florida Weather Blog Page

I'd also like to mention that I launched a secondary blog here on StormVisuals that focuses more on Florida weather news. I created it because I do cover a lot of weather events here in FL, but sometimes they don't always warrant getting published here on my main blog. So check it out, especially if you're a resident during this upcoming 2012 hurricane season.

That's it for now, time to go clean out those camera bags for the busy season ahead.

Got That Twitter Name Finally Changed Over

It's a new year and I have finally changed my Twitter name to @StormVisuals after being known as @weatherzine since the Fall of 2008. I have the best followers and I just wanted to thank everyone for the support and sharing of my name change over the last 72 hours. You've been a big help! If you already follow me on Twitter, then you're all set and don't need to do anything, but I will no longer be maintaining my old handle of @weatherzine from this point on.

Loving The G+

Also, you can follow me on Google+ as well by searching for +JeffGammons or clicking the icon above. I've really come to like Google+ too, with the clean layout and a community of very creative people. Awesome place for photographers to share their work and network with others.

2012 Severe Storm Season Ahead

Besides the name change and working on other video off season projects, I'm beginning to look toward the early spring severe storm season and beyond. Winter sure has been strange across the United States so far and here in Florida, with little snow up north and a hot December here in FL, followed by a new year freeze. It will be interesting to see how the severe weather season shapes over the South early this year. We know how tragic last year was with the tornado outbreaks in the Deep South.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year, and all the best to you in 2012. I look forward to bringing you more of my adventures with the weather visually throughout the upcoming year. - Jeff