VIOLENT THUNDERSTORM IN MIAMI BEACH – 80MPH wind gusts
June 29, 2009 by admin
Filed under South Florida
Every local I spoke to said they had never seen a thunderstorm this bad before in Miami. There was golf ball sized hail, incredible hurricane force wind gusts and nearly non stop CG lightning strikes, many of which struck the building I was taking shelter in.
The winds came and went four different times over the course of an hour and a half. For simplicity’s sake, I cut out the time in between the periods of high winds. The highest winds occurred around 1:42 and may have gusted to 80mph or more.
Afterwards the flooding was unbelievable. Hundreds of cars were stalled in the middle of the streets due to the high waters, so people were driving on the wrong side of the road and over lawns and sidewalks to pass the motionless cars. Stores were flooded and trees were down all over the island.
Overall, the storm was amazing and surely caused millions of dollars worth of damage. It took me three hours to get home after wards because the causeways back to the mainland were impassable.
Some people have informed me that storms this bad in South Florida are unusual but not “unheard of” as I implied in my old description. I’ve only been in Miami for a year and a half so I don’t have much to compare it to, but this way the worst thunderstorm I have ever seen, including ones I’ve seen while chasing tornadoes in Oklahoma and Kansas.
Duration : 0:4:43
