The Mind of Hurricane Trackers

Trying to make reason of hurricane season. To understand, control and accept what is unraveling before our eyes.

Why do people track? Watch? Chase?

Some people say we are not normal.. sort of like that Rusty character who was so funny in Twister..the one who kept talking about the Suck Zone or something funny. Believe he was in Leap of Faith too .. should check www.imdb.com but too late in the day for me to check anything but a water vapor loop.

Why?

Some love maps.. like me. Nothing more fun than a hurricane map. You get to draw on it, think about it. Though in 97 I drew someone's astrological chart on a hurricane map because well..there was nothing to track and had so many of them. Told them that their Venus was in the Bermuda Triangle. Smiling. Gosh those were fun days, we were so nuts. Poof.. gone.

So.. why?

Someone online said it was in their blood. I didn't ask if their father or mother was a forecaster but almost did. Could it be genetic? Both my baby brothers became trackers.. then again, was that genes or nurture.. as in big sister Bobbi's nurturing them?

Superman comic books and the 60s... Lex Luthor always trying to change the weather and take over the world. All those disaster movies with special effects and lightning?

The Wizard of Oz... whoosh up into the suck zone of the Twister.. the Professor would have told Dorothy that and he would have been arrested for soliciting a minor for sex most likely or at least... contributing to the destruction of some poor little girl's mind. Suck Zone indeed.

Weather is sexy. It's filled with so many allusions, illusions, references to sexual things. Twisters are phallic. Haven't you heard that one? If you dream of a twister it is supposed to mean either you fear your life is out of control or your sex life is.. psychology 101. Rain is sexual. Have had more men talk to me about rain than any woman who ever noticed it did much but make your hair soft. Heat..hot summer night and Body Heat..who can forget that scene in that movie? Every soap opera on tv has shown some famous super couple who broke up years before locked up lost in the woods in a blinding blizzard finding their heart again and coming back together ...

Fear factor? People are afraid of storms, blizzards, ice storms, thunderstorms.. they like to be in control and try to know when they will hit.

We have been accused of all wanting cheap thrills.. thrills=sex again see?

We want disaster... we crave being pushed to the wall, standing at the shore facing the monster storm, taking pictures, measuring winds.. having the waves grab at us and half drown us.. No, I don't think so. But, it is fun.. I'll tell you that.

I really don't think we want disaster and yet many of us are mesmerized by the wild, strong, intense effects of nature on the surface of the earth. To see a day start out gentle, soft blue skies, sun out cheerfully and suddenly a dark, purple-black line of thunderstorms appear in the northwest sky. The temperature drops. Things fall off the tree onto the roof of the house. Leaves go flying. Nothing in the world like watching a front race through Miami on a warm day in the winter... crash, bam.. thank you maam.. its gone, leaving behind strong winds out of the NW that are suddenly, magically cold as if God turned the AC on. Beautiful. Stunning.

I can't say why we do what we do but we do.

And, as Dr. Gray has said.. either you are or you aren't a tropical weather lover. Got the quote somewhere.. two types of people in the world and I know which kind I am.

What I don't understand is why others aren't like that?

How can they go about their day blind to the wonders and mysteries of the planet. They don't notice a beautiful sunset.. the sun is just going down, does it every day they say. They don't pay attention or care about a lunar eclipse. They don't enjoy the sound of the rain and rush to shut the windows even when the rain isn't coming in that window. They grimmace when it pours instead of staring at it magically. They don't have any curiousity to feel what it feels like when a storm is passing by offshore and have no need to drive out to the beach and watch the waves. They don't stand on their front porch staring out at a thunderstorm.

I think we are all a little quirky, even those of us who look staid and boring. Many meteorologists are very boring looking.. on the surface. Math majors even. They don't all run around in flowered shirts or wear baseball caps. They look to many like pencil pushers..though I do think that is changing. They are of all color, sexes, religions.. many were not ever even in the Navy or Air Force even. Just plain old folk in love with the weather, a good head for math and who studied it in college.

But..we are all a little crazy in our own ways.

I've found most to be.. all of these things that seem to contradict.

Serious..Funny
Skepitcal.. Spiritual
Left brain statistical, right brain emotional
Intense.. calm

Like the weather.. we change a lot in ways. Like the water and the waves.. we get churned up high, go crashing down again.

We love when a forecast is blown and a rule broken. Does that make us rebellious too?

Gianmarc posted this today online at hurricanecity.com .. great line.. loved it. Because I know exactly what they mean.

"Posted by Gianmarc on 7/28/2005, 9:20 am, in reply to "Re: sst in the
northern gulf <70383.html>"
User logged in as: Gianmarc
Excellent points, Tim. I am reminded of the January, 1995 "hurricane" over
the Mediterranean sea that achieved 80 kt winds and a plainly visible
CDO/eye on satellite imagery over 65 degree waters. I think Canetrakker
posted something about that storm recently, too. I just LOVE it when these
storms throw grenades at the rule book."

Maybe that says it best in ways how we look at the world.. we study climo and then we laugh like kids when climo is thrown out the window.

We are a fun lot.

I have a friend who I ..........ummmmmmmmmmm care about a lot. A nutty friend. I was walking down the block one day late at night coming home from someone's house and they were visiting in town for a few days. There was a full moon. They were standing in the middle of the street, staring up at the moon with this magical look of wonder. As if they were trying to command the full moon to stay a little longer. I never told them. Imagine, me not tell someone something? :) Same look they had on their face when we were at the beach a few nights later and staring out at the waves, the almost full moon still shining down on the waves, the wind blowing. They were in heaven.

Why?

Go ask birds why they fly or fish why they swim... they won't be able to tell you either.