RattlerGator Blog

Cascades Park - Spring 2013 Photo Update 2

Cascades Park in Tallahassee continues to progress toward completion. What promises to be the iconic centerpiece of the park is the amphitheater that sits adjacent to the spot that serves as Florida's prime meridian. This is the second in a series of posts that will showcase at least one photo including a current shot of the amphitheater and at least one photo of current progress elsewhere in the park.

Today -- the view of the amphitheater from the rear (the north) and, looking through the amphitheater, the backside of the park to its southern edge:

Once filled with people, this is going to be a spectacular sight. July 4th might really be special in this spot. Below is a picture that captures the reconfigured intersection of East Lafayette Street with Franklin Boulevard where they both touch the DOT parking lot and eventually merge with South Meridian Street.

That's Apalacheee Parkway, of course, on the left side of the photo behind those trees.

When it's all said and done, Tallahassee is going to have a pretty special park with an extremely unique Florida vista.

Cascades Park - Spring 2013 Photo Update 1

Cascades Park in Tallahassee continues to progress toward completion. What promises to be the iconic centerpiece of the park is the amphitheater that sits adjacent to the spot that serves as Florida's prime meridian. This is the first in what I hope will be a series of posts that will showcase at least one photo including a shot of the amphitheater and at least one photo of progress elsewhere in the park.

Tonight -- the view of the amphitheater and the city scene to its rear:

It's clearly going to be beautiful and I can already imagine some of the performances that will take place there. July 4th might really be special in this spot.

Of course, Cascades Park already serves as a stormwater management area and proved to be of great benefit already. In late February we suffered through a period of record rainfall that would have previously left the Franklin Street area completely underwater. Now, no issues at all were encountered in that area. Although the picture below doesn't quite do it justice, Franklin Street's reconstruction is nearly complete and the stormwater now flows entirely below the street above and into Cascades Park:

That's Apalacheee Parkway, of course, overhead.

When it's all said and done, Tallahassee is going to have a pretty special park with an extremely unique Florida vista.

Florida Lightning Show

Tonight in the easternmost section of the Florida Panhandle, Mother Nature put on quite a show that most of us have never quite seen before. Constant, dazzling lightning illuminated the sky so much that a friend originally from Mississippi called me and insisted that I come out around the North Florida Fairgrounds to see this God-inspired moment. 

So I did. And man am I glad that I did.

Before I did, however, I assured him it was just some cloud-to-cloud lightning. Not that big of a deal and rare, but certainly not unprecedented.

Wrong!

The weather people on the local stations were amazed and said they'd never really seen anything like it. It wasn't just the remarkable light show -- it was the incredible calm here in town. No thunder whatsoever.

Just the lightning.

Here are two different segments I captured, both filmed along Paul Russell Road adjacent to the North Florida Fairgrounds looking towards the southeast and the Gulf of Mexico (the lights from the parking lot of the Fairgrounds probably diminish the effect of the video but I still find it captivating):

[1]

 

[2]

 

It turns out, there was a huge storm with tremendous lightning strikes in the Taylor County area to the southeast. In Tallahassee, however, it was incredibly calm and quiet. And the video doesn't quite do justice of how spectacular the show was. Here's a radar snapshot from around the time of the video:

Given that the display was somewhere around 70 miles or so away, I'm curious if they could see the same thing in Gainesville on the other side of the storm? That would make this even more incredible; that both cities would have seen an amazing light show -- one looking southeast and the other looking west.

Whatever the case, I made a memory tonight and bow once again to the master of the universe.

Natural Beauty

This is not America. This is Chile. 

Do you know why this could not be America? 

via cobb.typepad.com

[Friday, October 21st RattlerGator comment using Android phone while trying, and failing, to figure out how to post from said phone] Not quite sure what Cobb is getting at in his post but I wanted to use this as a test of Typepad's re-bogging tool using my Android phone. Gorgeous photo, setting might run into trouble with American environmentalists.

[Saturday, October 22nd comment using my laptop] Checking Cobb's comment after the post, I was correct. That concrete and steel jutting out into the Pacific would be supremely problematic, I suspect. Coastal development is a flash point for controversy. The push would have been to have it set well back from the ocean.

Forecast today for Cavancha Beach in Iquique, Chile -- 65 for a high, 58 for a low, and partly cloudy skies.

Phenomenal Tsunami Video from Japan

The situation in Japan is still unfolding but this new video of the tsunami hitting a Japanese town bring home the unrelenting terror that must have been experience by millions of Japanese who had to deal with this disaster. It's awe-inspiring to watch the steady, methodical advance of the destruction:

Wow.