I'm having flashbacks.
So I just got done helping Mom outside. Why? Its name is Bill.
Yeah. Hurricanes do NOT like my family the girls in my family. (Dad's not here, yet Bill is headed for. However, in his defense [it wouldn't be fair to leave him out, after all] it did begin to form where his ship was, off the coast of Africa.)
"Oh that's just silly. Weather can't 'not like' someone!" you say?
Oh yes, YES it can!!!
In the Summer of 2003, we moved from Kodiak, Alaska to New Port Richey, Florida (about 25 miles NW of Tampa.) There wasn't much activity that season, until we arrived in Florida in early August of that year.
Hurricanes/Tropical Storms that have come near my house, and their category at the time. I've listed some info about them (as it regarded me). H# was its Saffir-Spimson Hurricane Wind Scale as it went by. TS means Tropical Storm strength (Max sustained winds 39-73 mph). TD means Tropical Depression strength (max sustained winds less than 38 mph). Distance is always given from center of eye to my house as-the-crow-flies (and position in relation - N is North, NW is NorthWest, etc). If you're not familiar with hurricanes, they're VERY wide across - sometimes well over 300 miles across (not to mention the weather they "fling off" and "suck in" which makes the "bad weather area" much wider than that.)
2003:
Uh... fun? -_-
ETA: WTF?! The news in America is so royally effed up that it can't even correctly tell you what is going RIGHT NOW. I have this funny feeling that it's:
A) Raining (not "10% chance of showers"... if it's raining, that means SAY IT'S RAINING!)
B) It's windy (and I don't mean "6mph" windy, as you seem to think it is. Seriously, it takes more than 6mph winds to pick up a large stick and throw it into the window. Seriously! Plus, based on the fact it's an H1 Hurricane right now, and how far out it is, we're in the 39-59 mph zone (roughly)... which is a tad more than six.)
C) You would think that, logically, you would match your "forecast" of what the weather is right now to what you "report" of the weather is right now (The funny thing is: their "forecast" matches the weather dead-on, but the current report is waaaaaay the hell off!)
D) I have lost what little faith I had in meteorology... or at least the people who play one on TV.
E) If you want to know the weather, buy or make this:
Yeah. Hurricanes do NOT like my family the girls in my family. (Dad's not here, yet Bill is headed for. However, in his defense [it wouldn't be fair to leave him out, after all] it did begin to form where his ship was, off the coast of Africa.)
"Oh that's just silly. Weather can't 'not like' someone!" you say?
Oh yes, YES it can!!!
In the Summer of 2003, we moved from Kodiak, Alaska to New Port Richey, Florida (about 25 miles NW of Tampa.) There wasn't much activity that season, until we arrived in Florida in early August of that year.
Hurricanes/Tropical Storms that have come near my house, and their category at the time. I've listed some info about them (as it regarded me). H# was its Saffir-Spimson Hurricane Wind Scale as it went by. TS means Tropical Storm strength (Max sustained winds 39-73 mph). TD means Tropical Depression strength (max sustained winds less than 38 mph). Distance is always given from center of eye to my house as-the-crow-flies (and position in relation - N is North, NW is NorthWest, etc). If you're not familiar with hurricanes, they're VERY wide across - sometimes well over 300 miles across (not to mention the weather they "fling off" and "suck in" which makes the "bad weather area" much wider than that.)
2003:
- Henri (Sept. 5-6) - TS when 50 miles SW from house, TD when 20 miles SSE. A nice "Welcome to Hurricane Country" storm. (More or less a very stormy day, but not "OMG" level.)
- Bonnie (Aug. 12) - TS about 200 miles from house NW. Just a taste of what was to come to next day (just some rains and moderate winds from Bonnie)
- Charley (Aug. 13) - H3 100 miles S from house. (Lost a few trees in the backyard.)
- Frances (Sept. 5-6) - H2 150 miles ESE from house, H1 70 miles ESE out, TS (65 mph winds) over house. We experienced "the eye" on this one. That is - winds were really strong and fast going in one direction, then everything stilled for about half an hour, then kicked up again with the winds going in the other direction. It was really rather cool. (LOTS of rain. Streets/yard flooded; house nearly flooded - 2 more inches and it would have. I was sand bagging/prepping all day before [9AM to 1 AM] for the horse barn I rode at, our neighbors, and our house. We lost some trees, roof shingles, and the like. Quite a bit of cleanup for this one.)
- Ivan (Sept. 14-16) - H4 and H3 about 350 miles E. (Yes, it was "far away" but it flung a lot of feeder bands at us. Lots of rain. Minor flooding since the ground was still soaked from Frances.)
- Jeanne (Sept. 26; Happy Birthday Dad!) - H3 125 miles SE. H2 100 miles SE. H1 50 miles E. Eye ended up about 30 miles from house. Mom wasn't in town for this one (she was in Cleveland.) She was less than amused when she found out dad had let us go swimming in the Hurricane (no power means no A/C... the pool is what kept us from feeling like we were in a sauna.) Lots of rain and wind and a few trees gone.
- Basically, no trees left after this Hurricane season
- Arlene (June 10-11) - TS 250 miles E. Some "flung off" stormy weather from this one, but nothing too bad.
- Dennis (July 9-10) - H3 210 miles W. H4 240 miles WNW. Again, storm weather, but not too bad.
- Katrina (Aug. 26) - H1 200 miles S. H2 220 miles SSW. Some rain and wind, a few lost branches, nothing too bad. Until the last minute, they thought Katrina was going to hook around and slam us - directly over our house. However, as you well know, it went to New Orleans instead.
- Ophelia (Sept. 8) - H1 240 miles E. Rainy, and some thunderstorms.
- Rita (Sept. 20-21) - H2 270 miles SSW. H3 285 SW. Some rain. Like Katrina, this one was supposed to hook around and slam us.
- Tammy (Oct. 5) - TS 175 miles E. Stormy weather.
- Wilma (Oct. 24) - H3 170 miles S.
- This was the first year that they ran out of letters to use for names. They had to start using the Greek alphabet! Additionally, the last Hurricane of the season (Zeta) came 4 weeks after the official end of Hurricane Season - the second latest Hurricane to develop in History (one in '54-'55 was later).
- We moved away from Florida. And, oh look, they had a mild Hurricane Season! Coincidence? I think not!
- Bill - Comin' at us!
Uh... fun? -_-
ETA: WTF?! The news in America is so royally effed up that it can't even correctly tell you what is going RIGHT NOW. I have this funny feeling that it's:
A) Raining (not "10% chance of showers"... if it's raining, that means SAY IT'S RAINING!)
B) It's windy (and I don't mean "6mph" windy, as you seem to think it is. Seriously, it takes more than 6mph winds to pick up a large stick and throw it into the window. Seriously! Plus, based on the fact it's an H1 Hurricane right now, and how far out it is, we're in the 39-59 mph zone (roughly)... which is a tad more than six.)
C) You would think that, logically, you would match your "forecast" of what the weather is right now to what you "report" of the weather is right now (The funny thing is: their "forecast" matches the weather dead-on, but the current report is waaaaaay the hell off!)
D) I have lost what little faith I had in meteorology... or at least the people who play one on TV.
E) If you want to know the weather, buy or make this: