Hurricane Dorian

[luscioman]

Just speaking about WPB & Jupiter,,,,the GOOD news is Lk Okee is at 13.5ft and usually at 16ft plus at labor day. What this mean is since it's so low, they are NOT opening any flood gates >> and opening those destroys our viz for weeks and weeks. Since this storm is moving quick(1 day over land rather than 3), I would expect that the clean water from the un-affected keys will ride the currents north to us and 3 days after the storm crosses, we should be in very good viz !! But if they open the S155 gate along with all the S40-S49 gates then we're toast until they close them. But with Lk O so low, we are gonna be in great shape for diving.

South Florida Mismanagement District has already begun to lower the canals. I dont know if this is only Broward and Miami-Dade.

South Florida Water Managers Lowering Canal Levels Ahead Of Dorian

 

[joe8mofo]

South Florida Mismanagement District has already begun to lower the canals. I dont know if this is only Broward and Miami-Dade.

South Florida Water Managers Lowering Canal Levels Ahead Of Dorian

So does that mean that the gates are open and that Viz is going to be poor for a while?

 

[CosbySweater]

Any thoughts on viz around the upper keys late next week and in to the weekend following the storm? I was planing to head down 9/4 - 9/8 but might reschedule. I guess a lot will depend on where the storm tracks.

 

[Johnoly]

.. I dont know if this is only Broward and Miami-Dade...

So does that mean that the gates are open and that Viz is going to be poor for a while?

We watch the Live-Realtime gate openings on the water management's website, it's really cool to see what's happening in real time.

For West Palm and Jupiter the main gate opening to watch is S-155 running right thru the middle of downtown in WPB and dumping to ocean tide. This gate is actually 3 giant gates that can open as large as 9 feet high which is a huge dump. Then the smaller gates we watch are S-40 , S-41, S-44, S-46, S-48, S-49. Lastly there is S-80 which is the very 1st major gate with 7 gigantic gates that gets opened if they want to lower Lk Okee, but this drains out near Ft Pierce well north of Jupiter & West Palm so really doesn't effect our viz. S-79 is the sister to S-80 but it's over on the gulf side and no effect.

Right now At 2:00pm Thursday,
S-80 is closed solid tight at 0.0 opening
S-155 has 3 gates open at each at 2ft - Which is not a lot, but it's still 1600 cubic ft per second, but it's not a full dump to tide
All the S-40's are barely open a foot or less so nothing really dumping. Kinda like they are burping the canals.

Again, Lake Okee is way low by 3 feet so the managers are going to try everything they can to save all this rain water coming to fill it up to 16.5ft. I still think viz will be cruddy for 3 days after the storm, but that strong gulf stream will clear it right out on the 85 foot reefs after that.

Want to see the real time gate openings to watch what's happening????
Here's the live link--Best viewed with Windows explorer browser since it gets funky with firefox and chrome.

https://my.sfwmd.gov/portal/pls/portal/realtime.pkg_rr.proc_rr?p_op=COASTAL

 

[iamrushman]

upgrade to category 4 when it arrives florida Sunday night,Monday morning....batten down the hatches for this one...no general arrival point for land fall..just somewhere in florida.

 

[CajunDiva]

Any thoughts on viz around the upper keys late next week and in to the weekend following the storm? I was planing to head down 9/4 - 9/8 but might reschedule. I guess a lot will depend on where the storm tracks.

Everyone has their own opinion, but I think that would be a great time to visit the upper keys. I think the vis will be fine in that area, of course barring any change in the forecast track.

Also, there will be way fewer tourists and divers around, so you'd be able to get in some great dives and your business would certainly be appreciated after a Labor Day interruption in tourism!

 

[CosbySweater]

Good points. Like everyone else, I’ll just have to keep an eye on it. Thanks for the reply.

For anyone who resides in the storms path, stay safe!

Everyone has their own opinion, but I think that would be a great time to visit the upper keys. I think the vis will be fine in that area, of course barring any change in the forecast track.

Also, there will be way fewer tourists and divers around, so you'd be able to get in some great dives and your business would certainly be appreciated after a Labor Day interruption in tourism!

 

[RyanT]

The forecast for this storm keeps intensifying. Batten down the hatches Florida friends. Fingers crossed that the forecast is overestimating intensity!

 

[Johnoly]

...., but I think that would be a great time to visit the upper keys....

I agree 100%. I'm riding out the storm in O-town,,,,,but if I was going to evacuate from this storm I would head directly to the Keys. They should have good conditions on the inside reefs and so many planes have cancelled flights to all of Florida, there's gonna be alot of available rooms and boats.

 

[The Chairman]

YAH! Yet, Another Hurricane! Been through many, but this one is wild. My first impression was landfall just N of Jax. We'll see how far off I am, but then it doesn't look like I'm going to be hit, either.