Buresh Blog: Yet another monthly record high temp... severe squall line... 2020 tornadoes so far

Jacksonville, Fl — February for Jacksonville/NE Fl. & SE Ga. is picking up right where the rest of winter (Dec./Jan.) left off. JIA established an all-time record high for the month of Feb. on the 13th breaking the previous monthly record (since 1871) of 88 degrees on the 24th in 1962 & on the 9th in1937. The 13th was the culmination of 3 straight days with record highs (85 on the 11th & 84 degrees on the 12th) & the 4 record high for the month (85 degrees on the 6th). And not to be outdone.... Feb. was the 3rd straight month with an all-time record high as both Dec. & Jan. has record tying all-time highs of 85 degrees.

The warm Feb. temps. helped spawn a squall line of severe storms Feb. 6 which rolled across SE Ga. & NE Fl. during the evening hours. There were many reports of strong, sometimes damaging winds along with an EF-0 (winds near 85 mph) tornado on the SW side of Waycross, Ga. - the first tornado touchdown of the year in NE Fl./SE Ga. Our Jax N.W.S. has a web page dedicated to the severe storm outbreak including some pics * here *. Imagery below courtesy the Jax N.W.S.:

Speaking of tornadoes.... “U.S. Tornadoes” is running a 2020 tally for tornadoes so far. As one would expect, the majority over the Southeast third or so of the Lower 48:

An interesting cloud photo sent to me Tue., Feb. 18th from Mark Whyte, St. Johns Co., Fl. The pic below appears to be a lenticular cloud. The typical lenticular cloud is found over mountains with the cloud created by “orographic lift”. But in this case, the “saucer/UFO”-like cloud would have been caused by upper level air rushing up (blown by upper level winds) & over the nearby low level clouds... the air condenses & forms a cloud with very smooth edges.

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