Tropical Storm Andrea Spreading Heavy Rains to U.S. East Coast [1]

Wunderground blogs - by Dr. Jeff Masters - 7 June 2013

Figure 1. Yummy’s cafe in Gulfport, Florida was hit Thursday morning by a waterspout that moved ashore and became a tornado.(LAUREN CARROLL/Tampa Bay Times)

Tropical Storm Andrea [2] is rapidly losing its tropical characteristics as it barrels northeastwards at 27 mph up the U.S. East Coast, but it still has plenty of tropical moisture that is feeding very heavy rains. Rains of 2 - 4" are expected along a swath from South Carolina to New England from Andrea over the next two days. Pine Ridge, NC has received 6.5" of rain from Andrea, and New River MCAS, North Carolina [3] picked up 2" of rain as of 9 am EDT this morning, along with a wind gust of 47 mph at 3:18 am. The same band of heavy thunderstorms spawned a possible tornado near Hubert, North Carolina at 4:45 am EDT. Andrea has spawned a preliminary count of eleven tornadoes, which is a respectable number for a landfalling June tropical storm, but not a record. According to TWC's severe weather expert Dr. Greg Forbes, there have been two other June tropical storms since the year 2000 that spawned far more tornadoes--Tropical Storm Bill [4] during June 29 - July 3, 2003 (32 tornadoes in FL, GA, LA, AL, MS, SC, NC, NJ), and Tropical Storm Allison [5] of June 7 - 17 2001 (28 tornadoes in FL, AL, GA, LA, MS, SC, VA, MA, ME.) Only one of Andrea's tornadoes caused an injury, a tornado that hit The Acreage in Palm Beach County at 6:45 am EDT. The highest storm surge from Andrea was 4.55' at Cedar Key, Florida.

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