2007 Local Weather Review

By Alan Sealls Chief Meteorologist

Everybody probably remembers how dry we were in the middle of 2007 but do you remember the tornadoes? 2007 Local Weather Review

Published: Mon, December 31, 2007 - 7:47 pm Last Updated: Mon, December 31, 2007 - 10:34 pm

Alan Sealls

Holey clouds! We saw interesting hole punch clouds, also known as dissipation holes, at the end of January, a month that otherwise gave no extremes in local weather.

Mid February delivered damage from a tornado in Vancleave and severe storms in Orange Grove, Mississippi. Killer tornadoes skirted our area on March 1st. People died in Millers Ferry and in Enterprise. Both communities saw tornadoes with wind over 170 mph. Most of March remained mild and calm with a silently developing drought. By the end of the month woods fires commonly popped up in our area. Drought status was moderate.

Too much water came with severe weather in Washington, Clarke, and Monroe Counties on April 14th. Electric skies from May thunderstorms set several homes and buildings ablaze in Mobile. On the first day of June, TS Barry formed in the Gulf but rapidly moved inland to our east. We could have used the rain. Drought status in the Florida panhandle was raised to severe.

July 3rd was a stormy day. Walmart on I-65 in Mobile was hit by a downburst and gustnado. Heavy rain came with the storm to make more of a mess throughout the area. By the end of July Mobile had picked up a foot of rain. August was hot with nine straight days of heat advisories.

On August 11th Mobile set a record high of 101- the hottest day since in seven years. The drought in the Florida panhandle worsened to the extreme category. September rains eased the drought as we saw showers and even waterspouts like this one in Escambia bay.

On September 21st Tropical Depression #10 formed just offshore of the Panhandle but fizzled to drizzle within 12 hours. That was our most tropical activity.

October was active with tornadoes. On the 18th a waterspout moved onshore west of Pensacola. It traveled through the city for 7 miles as a tornado. Injuries were minor but property damage brought back memories of Ivan. Four days later another tornado happened. This time in Mobile County. Different day. Different damage. It's not forgotten on Memory Lane in Coden.