An unidentified woman was seen hitching a ride on the back of a manatee in the waters off Fort De Soto Park in the Tampa Bay area, which runs afoul of the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act.Now authorities are looking for the manatee molester…
If you see a large group of manatees suddenly show up in shallow water and start rubbing up against each other, there’s a good chance they’re humping, and you shouldn’t try to interrupt them.Recently, such a group has appeared near Siesta Beach on Siesta Key, and wildlife officials have had…
Check out our previous coverage of Tropical Storm IsaacAs you probably noticed by looking outside Monday morning and seeing that everything was intact, save some larger-than-usual puddles and broken branches, Tropical Storm Isaac wasn’t exactly an apocalyptic event for Miami. Sure, it did result in some canceled flights, power outages,…
The worst of Tropical Storm Isaac has officially blown through the Keys and into the Gulf this morning, though its sloppy remains are still drenching Dade. Riptide’s storm experts have begun tallying the damage Isaac wrought in Florida: 80,000 or so without power, minor flooding here and there, and dozens…
If you’re like us at Riptide, your eyes have been rolling all morning watching NBC 6, CBS 4, Local 10, and WSVN make fools of themselves reporting on the “awful” conditions brought by Tropical Storm Isaac. Yeah, there’s been some rain and wind, and Miami even experienced some brownouts last night,…
It’s happening, people! Southern Miami-Dade and the Florida Keys are under a hurricane watch as Tropical Storm Isaac keeps moving northwest at 17 mph. The northern part of the county remains under a hurricane warning.The latest NOAA update has the storm making landfall in Cuba with max sustained winds at…
Riptide’s Crack Weather Team has just issued this update on Tropical Storm Isaac: 9:45 AM EST/ Wind shear and disorganized flow have hampered Isaac’s development, but a dip in low pressure means by that this afternoon Isaac will begin inexorably raging with the blind, horrible fury of a pack of…
See also, “Photos: Remembering Hurricane Andrew” and “Hurricane Andrew at 20: Miami Herald Reporters Remember.”Twenty years ago today, Hurricane Andrew made landfall at Elliott Key as a Category Five monster before tearing west through Miami-Dade and leaving $26.5 billion in damage in its wake. In 1992, Miamians didn’t have cell…
Riptide’s crack meteorological team has just issued this update on Tropical Storm Isaac: 09:17:00 AM EST Due to favorable wind shear and hot ocean temps, by Monday TS Isaac is expected to rage with the devastating power of ten thousand nuclear bombs. It will personally find your house, smash each…
Between the cash-hungry strip clubs, the prime-time Rick Scott speech, and the 50,000-plus conservatives and 20,000 protestors squaring off, Tampa is already going to be one insane circus from hell next week. The only thing that could possibly make the Republican National Convention better would be a raging hurricane outside.Which…
The power is off. Your home is lit by candles. You’re drunk from the hurricane party. What else is there to do, quite frankly?So we’re not exactly surprised that 27 percent of Miamians have gotten it on in the midst of a hurricanes. Actually, we’re surprised the percentage isn’t higher…
Somewhere in Biscayne Bay there is a pod of manatees laughing their fat, mossy asses off.Aristides Lorenzo Rodriguez, 43, was sentenced to a year of probation yesterday for repeatedly violating speed limits in a manatee zone. Clearly, a federal judge Jonathan Goodman is trying to scare Rodriguez into giving a…
We’re just weeks away from the start of South Florida’s wet season. Which, not to bum everyone out, means it’s almost time for our daily mid-afternoon rain showers. Meteorologists predict that this summer could see even more rainfall than average this year. In terms of water levels and such, that’s…
Between the front-page Miami Herald story, the endless meteorologists on the morning news and the Facebook and Twitter-choking freakout by basically everyone you know, you’d think hurricane season had officially arrived. Not quite. But it is going to rain for FOUR STRAIGHT DAYS in Miami.It’s the rainpocalypse! Will you and…
Congratulations! You survived Emily, Irene, Rina, and all those other storms that threatened to come near us, yet never did. Yes, we’ve endured another hurricane season, and we won’t even have to think about any possible category fives until next June. …
Yesterday it seemed that Rina was poised to reach category three strength winds with an eventual turn near South Florida. Today, Rina has dissipated back to tropical storm status and is now projected come no where near us. Jeez, Rina, what a loser…
Slowly moving but quickly strengthening Hurricane Rina is expected to become a Category 3 storm sometime within the next 24 hours as it trudges toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. However, the five-day projections have the storm taking a hard right turn later this week, and Miami is now within its possible…
Quickly developing Hurricane Rina has now achieved Category 2-strength winds less than a day after becoming a hurricane, and there’s no sign she’s about to slow down. Forecasters now expect the storm to make a hard right turn, with the Florida Keys in its possible path…
In a murky, garbage-strewn canal next to a dilapidated apartment complex, a mossy-colored beast breaks the water’s surface. The manatee looks as out of place in this hood as a three-piece-suit-clad banker chillin’ at Churchill’s.Kit Curtin, a veteran biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, says it ain’t easy being a…
Rina has now officially reached hurricane-strength winds. The storm is currently trudging slowly off of the coast Honduras in the Caribbean Sea, with Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. It’s way too early to predict with any certainty its ultimate path, but the storm is expected to strengthen over the next few days…
“We are the most vulnerable metropolitan area in the world when it comes to sea level rise,” says University of Miami professor Harold Wanless. Sitting in his office, the avuncular geologist paints a bleak picture. Global warming is a fact, and the results are already visible: hurricanes are getting stronger,…
A tropical storm moving to the northwest in the Atlantic Ocean could send more big wind up North.Now only an unorganized mess packing 65 mph winds, Tropical Storm Katia is expected to increase to a Category 2 hurricane in the next five days and to head northwest toward North Carolina or…
