sff_corgi_lj | But we're not SUPPOSED to get tornadoes here!

Thanks, everybody, for your comments. I'm still a little freaked out by the whole thing.

I heard the wind pick up while I was sitting on the couch, poking around my laptop; our front porch is semi-sheltered, so when I stepped out to see what was going on, I didn't get the full wind in my face. And goodness, there was such a wind, straight from the west, grabbing our neighbour's inappropriate pile of trash (they didn't seem to read the Solid Waste regs) and throwing it all over. I have to point out that, in part due to the porch roof, I noticed no weird-coloured clouds or swirling... until the vortex showed up by means of torn-up branches and tar paper above the warehouse building one block north, silhouetted against cityglow bouncing off the overcast.

It was at this point I started the AAAAH!! and slamming doors behind me and general freaking out [cf: 'freaking out']

We lost power just before the noise started; apparently the beastie tapped a carport over on 14th Avenue (I'm between 17th and 15th, there is no 16th here) before dissippating. Then it started pouring as if somebody had turned on a large tap somewhere. I was starting to worry about Ein's floorboards, but what ended up being the problem w/ Ein was that all the traffic was being diverted away from the intersection of 17th Av. and 28th Street down ours. See, they just stripped parts of the asphalt in preparation for some large-scale plumbing, so the puddles were all murky with coral-rock dust.

And brilliant me, I'd left Ein's windows cracked. All 4 of them. :headdesk: So not only did I get rain, I got splashes of thin mud from the yahoos who couldn't drive normally down a flooded street, splashes all down my driver's door and as far over as the passenger dash. Growl.

Channel 10 makes it sound so... unincidental:

MIAMI -- A storm system sweeping in from the Atlantic unleashed tornadoes on the Miami area.

No injuries were reported, but the weak twisters Saturday night touched down on Miami Beach and Fisher Island before hopscotching across the bay. One touched down at the Bayfront near downtown Miami.

Several witnesses reported seeing a large funnel cloud.

The National Weather Service reported some damage to roofs on condos and commercial buildings. It does not appear to have been extensive.

Miami police also reported some street flooding.

(Good thing I called

heidi8 after all!)

I found what appears to be a plastic bumper from the Camaro Place at the corner of 15th and 27th; also a couple of cushions that could be from anywhere. Tar paper from the warehouse right next door to the Camaro Place got flung as far as 14th Avenue in one direction, and I saw some draped over a fence between 17th and 18th on 29th or 30th Street.

D'Argo and I ended up doing a lot of walking around, since I didn't expect to be able to sleep much - the air was too still. I walked over to see the roped-off area (quickly cleared) on 14th by myself, not being sure of conditions, then D and I kept the cop at the end of our street company for a while. He was keeping people from meandering into the work zone in the intersection. He's got a boxer puppy himself, so was quite impressed with the Cutest White Boxer in Miami. After Carmela (the puppy next door) showed up, we took her home then I took a nap. I got back up around 5ish, having heard the newspaper get delivered before I zoned out. I looked up from the paper to find the most beautiful display of Taurus, Orion, and the Canii, all veiled in very light clouds, looking like fantasy illustration. Since we found the intersection cleared at that point, D and I went to look at the damage. Even if the neighbourhood got off lightly (again), it's still a mess for those two businesses. I 'watched' both Sirius and a power truck on the next block over for a while before calling FP&L again. A second nap (surprisingly) got interrupted first by Ma, then by the power coming on around 9 AM, yay! Got some real sleep after that.

NBC actually said this is related to Ophelia - I guess in a crack-the-whip sort of way. The closest I could find to an image of our ugly little patch of weather is here (although I don't know how long it'll be there, so backup link here). You can also see it here if you know how to read weather charts at all. Look quick at this one, it'll update soon enough. :)