Weather radar
The last 50 minutes of NEXRAD over the Keys, animated, with the warnings in force and how to read a Keys storm. Not for navigation.
Checking NWS alerts…
Not for navigation
From May to October the sea breeze builds cumulus over the Everglades and the mainland by early afternoon. Which way the storms drift depends on the steering wind: on a south-west or west flow they come across Florida Bay to the Keys and the reef; on the usual easterlies most stay over the peninsula. On light-wind mornings the storms can form over the Keys and the Bay themselves. Watch the 50-minute loop for the direction of travel, not just where the colour is now.
From November to April a cold front shows as a line of showers coming down the peninsula, sometimes with a squall line ahead of it. The rain is the small part: the wind swings north behind the front and the oceanside builds over a few hours. The line on the radar is your clock for getting back to the ramp or the dock.
A dry gust front or a waterspout shows little or nothing. The Keys lead the country for waterspouts, which form under lines of growing cumulus on humid, light-wind mornings: look at the sky as much as the screen. The beam from Key West and Miami is several thousand feet up by the time it reaches Islamorada, so low showers can look weaker than they are.
Greens are light rain you can fish through; yellow is a steady soaking; orange and red are heavy rain with gusty wind and lightning likely; purple and white are hail and severe cores. A cell that grows and brightens on each frame is building; one that fades and spreads is collapsing, and a collapsing storm often sends out its strongest gust.
On a charter the captain watches this for you and makes the call: a trip cut short for weather is seamanship, not bad luck, and most captains will try to make the time up or reschedule. Ask on the dock how they handle afternoon storms in summer.
The conditions page carries the NWS marine forecast and the small-craft advisories; the map shows the ramps, marinas and bridges to run for.
The NWS's own loops from the two radars that cover Islamorada, and the regional mosaic. They are the fallback if the viewer above cannot load, and the place to look during tropical weather.
A charter means someone who has watched ten thousand Keys afternoons decides when to run and when to wait. Book a day on the water with A Fishing Guru.
Book a fishing charter Call 305-916-9130