TROPICAL DEPRESSION ALBERTO

REMNANTS OF TROPICAL STORM ALBERTO IN VIRGINIA

June 14, 2006:

With the first tropical system of the season making landfall along the Florida peninsula on June 12th, Mark Sudduth drove his way south from Wilmington, NC on Monday afternoon to Cedar Key. I decided to stay put and play the east coast as the forecast called for it to make its way into the Carolinas and Virginia by Wednesday as a tropical depression or weak storm. The forecast held as it continued to move up the east coast with the center moving over interior of North Carolina over Raleigh and moving northeast into southeast Virginia late in the day on Wednesday.

I started my day at 5:45am driving to the Outer Banks of North Carolina as it looked like the center would pass close to the region and had the possibility of producing severe weather. A tornado watch had been issued for the eastern half of North Carolina early in the morning. There were breaks in the clouds from time to time but generally cloudy conditions prevailed. I waited until the 11am advisory from the NHC and decided to head back northward and into Virginia Beach where the center of the depression was forecast to move offshore. The HPC had forecasted a bulls-eye of heavy rain in the Hampton Roads area with some amounts reaching 5 inches or more. That forecast came true as friend Bill Coyle and I started shooting some street flooding down near 57th street at the oceanfront. We had several strong wind gusts in the 30's. I had two that reached 33mph that I recorded and would later report to NWS Wakefield. All in all, I recorded about 5.78 inches of rain there in Virginia Beach. Flooding was taking place all over Hampton Roads with stalled out vehicles everywhere. Several happened right where we were at 57th street. Other than that, not really much to list here. Alberto merged with a trough of low pressure dropping in from the northwest and became extratropical in nature before moving through Virginia and offshore.

ALBERTO VIDEO CLIP: See the wind and heavy rain and street flooding in Virginia Beach 12.9mb

As some of the windier conditions moved in in the heavier rain bands, I stopped and shot the "fake" palm trees blowing in the wind.

Another shot of the winds whipping through the oceanfront area.

A few minutes after arriving in Virginia Beach, Bill called to tell me about the flooding already taking place near 57th street.

As the rain continued to fall, the street quickly worsened and backed up traffic in both directions.

The heaviest rain band moved over near 5pm which was around the center of circulation. I didn't think it was possible that the street could get any more flooded.

"Mariner Restaurant" became oceanfront and lakefront property in a matter of a few hours.

Wind gusting to 30mph in front of the Ramada as the water started backing up into the parking lot.