Whipping Winds Help Push Out Drenching Rain
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – South Florida, still trying to dry out from days of drenching rain that caused severe flooding in parts of Miami-Dade County, not only had to contend with more rain Thursday but also whipping wind.
According to CBS4 Chief Meteorologist David Bernard, an area of low pressure strengthened rapidly off South Florida's coastline Thursday. While it took away the morning rain and brought the return of blue skies, it also caused very strong winds along the coast.
Key Biscayne had a wind gust of 64 mph. On Miami Beach, wind gusts between 50 and 60 mph were recorded.
In Broward County, wind gusts between 40 and 50 mph were recorded along the coast mostly around Hollywood and Hallandale Beach. Offshore, a wind gust of 71 mph was recorded at Fowey Rocks.
One man, who had planned to sail today, was glad a mechanical issue kept him off the water Thursday.
"We were planning to sail today. I just came from Europe in my sailboat and we were going to head up to Lake Okeechobee but fortunately my bilge pump went out and I'm glad it did because it would have been awful sailing out there today," said Jim Carrier.
Carrier said the waves appeared to be 9-12 feet, simply too rough for his boat.
Inland areas didn't see the strong winds.
The winds subsided as the low rapidly pulled away from the coast.
There was at least one downed tree due to the windy weather.
A large palm tree came down in the parking lot of a business in North Miami.
The wind also caused a downed power line in the 6300 block of Pinetree Drive on Miami Beach.
According to Florida Power and Light, there are about 4,000 people without power in Miami-Dade and 500 outages in Broward. Some traffic signals are also reported to be out. If you encounter a non-working traffic light, be sure to treat it like a four-way stop.
