Morning Notes from Panama City Beach

Good morning from Panama City Beach, where the only four people on the beach are part of a TV news crew setting up for a live shot.

Somewhere here in the hotel, Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel is broadcasting live.

Our winds are still northeasterly with the storm to our south.

It is mostly cloudy now, but just a few minutes ago, Jupiter was still twinkling through a break in the clouds.

High tide is 7:26 this morning here. The Gulf if higher than it was last night, about to reclaim three lonely beach chairs that were either left in front of the hotel as a reference point yesterday or just abandoned to Alberto.

The surf occasionally emits one of those artillery-like booms that signals the power of the surf. As the sun rises, you can see the spray being blown from the tops of the breakers by that northerly wind.

Convection is refiring around the center of Alberto this morning, an ominous sign that its stalling overnight may give it a chance to overcome the dry air that cut it off yesterday and organize a bit.

A convective band is approaching from the southeast, evident on the radar and now visible as the light of day slowly increases.

Here is the Tallahassee radar, showing that increased convection around the northern semicircle of the center.

Alberto has top winds of 65 mph still. It was thought that it would not increase in intensity, but the extra time to reorganize might change that some. The central pressure reported by the Hurricane Hunters around 12:30 a.m. was 990 millibars.

Another Air Force plane is en route to Alberto and we will have information on its current state soon.

Alberto will resume its march toward the coast shortly and we will be tracking it.

Stay tuned to AlabamaWX throughout the day for continuing coverage on Subtropical Storm Alberto.

And now, some nice soul has rescued those three beach chairs. The reference point for the tidal height is gone, but they will live to fight another day.

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