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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

We had a gorgeous pre-dawn launch of Starlink satellites from the Florida Space Coast this morning that created quite the jellyfish effect low on the horizon! This launch was highly visible from Florida all the way to the northeast USA.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

After manual quality control, I found the longest lightning strike in my records since I started researching central Florida lightning data (since 2023). This intracloud strike traveled 57km from north to south, hopping along a convective outer rainband of Invest #93L. #FLwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Last week's severe weather in Iowa added enough tornadoes to bring it tied for the least year-to-date, since 1980 (16), based on preliminary surveys. Remarkable given the record was just last year (108 YTD). #IAwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Precipitable water came in at 2.44" this morning at Cape Canaveral SFS ahead of #93L. This is the second-highest for the date and sixth-highest on record for July (since 1950). Very heavy rain will be associated with any showers and storms today across central Florida. #FLwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Yesterday's EF-1 #tornado near Essex, Iowa was rated a preliminary width of 3130 yards, or 1.78mi wide. This is the widest tornado on record (since 1950) in the state surpassing an EF-3 on the infamous Mapleton, Iowa tornado outbreak night in 2011. #IAwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

While 2025's tornado count is off to a very fast start, I think what's equally incredible is the total track length. Through April 6, the preliminary data show the season so far is just below 1974 for total tornado track length. 2025 is still preliminary. That line that races off in April is 2011.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

More than 17,000 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes were tallied by the Cape MERLIN with the strong storms Monday between 4-11 p.m. over central Florida. The storms put on quite the show! #flwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Tonight's SpaceX FRAM2 launch against a horizon filled with lightning! This might be one of my new favorites.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

So it appears the largest gap between the end of one and the start of the next, during the March 14-16 period, is 354 minutes (just shy of six hours) at the very end. During the meat of the outbreak there was a 219 minute gap (3hr 39min) with another 325 minute (5hr 25 minutes).

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

I'll do a little more digging to make certain, but this seems to fit into that mold of 6-hour gaps. I'll get back to you on that once I am certain I didn't miss anything.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

The longest gap of tornadoes between from March 14-15 is only 3 hours and 42 minutes. They were coming in pretty early on the 15th as well. The large Friday outbreak was going until 9:14z wit the first on the 15th at 12:59z.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

So this event had 114 total tornadoes. 95 of those were factored into the Adjusted Fujita Miles calculating as it only uses EF1+.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

The ranking is based on Fuhrmann et al. 2014 (linked). I ran the numbers on this event as well as March 31-April 1, 2023, another rather significant outbreak since this paper calculated events, and the March 2025 sequence is quite remarkable. 2023 - 1897 Paper: journals.ametsoc.org/view/journal...

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Here's the latest on the March 14-16 tornado outbreak across the United States - Using the Adjusted Fujita Method for quantifying this outbreak using the *preliminary* data, the AFM for this outbreak is 2813. This would be the fourth most-significant outbreak based on 1973-2011 events.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Due to cuts from the Trump administration, eight additional upper air sites are cutting or completely eliminating data collection. This will have a significant impact on our ability to forecast in order to save lives and property. This is on top of the several sites already cut or eliminated.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

The updated #tornado count for the March 14-16 sequence in the United States is up to 107. Surveys are continuing and could take several more days, if not weeks, before the total is finalized.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

On or after April 4, 2025, at approximately 15:10UTC, GOES-19, the newest satellite in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series, will become the operational GOES-East satellite, replacing GOES-16. -NWS Office of Observations

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

The March 14-16, 2025 #tornado outbreak is up to at least 69 tornadoes based on preliminary data. Surveys are continuing. This will continue to evolve and takes days, if not weeks, to finalize. It's a slow, methodical process that is in the best hands possible.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Peak eclipse in Cape Canaveral, Florida! #FLwx #LunarEclipse

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Gorgeous launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA's Crew 10 slipped at least a day, but at least we got a consolation Starlink mission!

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

We will likely be breaking widespread climate records for surface pressure on Friday. Current guidance is well beyond climatological extremes for a very large area. The ensemble guidance is truly incredible with a minimum pressure of 973mb.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Exceptionally dry air sits over the Florida Space Coast. Thursday morning's weather balloon from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station had a precipitable water value of 7.61mm (0.30") which is the fifth-lowest on record (since 1950) for the date, sitting below the 90th percentile. #FLwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

A very powerful storm system will traverse the US early next week bringing high-end severe weather to the South and accumulating snow North/Midwest. The low pressure is forecast to be at a climatological minimum. Very intense!

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

A jellyfish in the evening Florida twilight as a SpaceX Falcon 9 carries a Maxar WorldView Legion satellite to space.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Go SpaceX, Go SpainSat NG-1! Farewell B1073 🫡 #FLwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Can we talk about that amazing launch last night? New Glenn is truly a BLUEtiful rocket! Go #BlueOrigin, Go #NewGlenn!

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

New heavy-lift rocket in town. Go Blue Origin's New Glenn!

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

Gorgeous launch of tonight's Firefly Space "Blue Ghost" and ispace inc. "RESILIENCE" spacecrafts, headed to a lunar landing! #SpaceX

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

Looks like a rapid wildfire is developing now between Santa Clarita and San Fernando along I-5. The hot spot is getting much "brighter" rapidly on GOES-18/GOES-West. #CAwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

North of Pasadena, winds are sustained at 60mph with gusts of 95mph as of the 10 p.m. observation. Unbelievable. #CAwx #EatonFire

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Here is an updated look at this past weekend's tornado outbreak as surveys continue to come in from local WFOs.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

The advantage of having a high spatial and temporal resolution lightning mapper, the Cape MERLIN, is you can see really neat structures try and show up in the raw cloud-to-cloud lightning points. Here's 2s of lightning slowed down as a flash occurs off the Florida Coast. #FLwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 25/12/2024

Santa Claus is coming to town...

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

The May 2024 #SolarFlare sequence remains the most impressive series of events in Solar Cycle 25. Over the course of four days (May 8-11): -8 X Class flares -13 flares of M5+ G5 conditions on Earth first since 2003. IMF peaked at Bt +73 with the Bz down to -50. Very geoeffective! #SpaceWeather

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

#OTD in 2015 I got this smōl #tornado near Sciota, Illinois right at sunset. Wild, memorable chase day. Chaser convergence featured a lot of Santa hats. #ILwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Blue Origin's Launch Complex 36 is looking beautiful tonight across the Banana River! #NewGlenn

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Roughly... There could have been better limits for that reason and hand editing, but I filtered out any "non-thunderstorm" gusts/damage. It's more an issue with how it was formatted in Storm Data which is still preliminary at this point. That will likely get cleaned up after the start of the year.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

A look through the 2024 severe weather season using Local Storm Reports. It was quite the active season! Tornadoes and wind reports are well above the 2005-2015 running average.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Dec. 27-29 continues to show up really well for potential severe weather in the south/southeast US. Continuing to watch trends very closely. The #tornado analogs are slowly narrowing in on #LAwx, #MSwx and #ALwx. This is more than a week out so much can change. Watch future forecasts.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

This is absurd. Well forecast, but absurd. The year will end will a full on blowtorch across North America. 850Ts are pushing 90th percentile territory.

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

My seventh installment of "Live Life and Chase," a recap of my favorite storm chasing experiences through 2024, is live! I got my first FL and GA tornadoes, added Fort Stockton'ing to the list and dabbled in a few hurricanes. We also got the Eclipse and the Northern Lights! youtu.be/yYKnQecr4KU?...

youtu.be

Storm Chasing Documentary 2024 - Live Life and Chase

YouTube video by Meteorologist Nick Stewart

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Not a bad view of tonight's #SpaceX #RRT1 mission from the backyard while grilling! How can you hate the Florida Space Coast? #FLwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

A really bright rainbow on our morning walk ! #flwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

Trying to get Python working on a new Windows install in the same way is actually the worst experience as there are so many steps I forget exist 😅

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

The weekend will feature increasing onshore flow for the Atlantic Coast of Florida accompanied by scattered showers, gusty winds and turbulent surf. Not the greatest beach weekend! There will be some possible improvement Monday, but the overall pattern is a rough one. #flwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Probabilities of at least 0.10" of ice are approaching 90%! This will likely make travel incredibly hazardous, if not impossible at times, in addition to causing power outages and tree damage. Ice is something you do not want to mess with! #IAwx #IceStorm

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Moisture levels of the atmosphere are forecast to be 2 standard deviations above normal, or about the 90th percentile. A lot of moisture to work with!

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Fairly dangerous situation is developing across the Midwest/Iowa overnight into Saturday with freezing rain a real problem. A strong push of warm air about a km aloft will sit over surface temperatures well below freezing. #IAwx #IceStorm

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

A low-end threat exists today for a few strong storms across the Florida peninsula. Instability will be sufficient, especially for gusty storms, however wind shear is quite lacking. Looking at the sounding from Cape Canaveral SFS this morning the wind fields are quite unidirectional. #flwx

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Nick Stewart @nstewwx.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

Caught the #SpaceX plane coming into Titusville. #AVgeek

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