Tropical Storm Alberto Bears Down on Cedar Key

I listened to Jim's program tonight. He was as always excellent. Full of facts and figures and information that he collects, accesses and uses when a storm is hitting. I don't think people realize or appreciate how much work goes into his collection and compilation of data.

And... in the end, what is most fun is sitting back and listening to him be Jim. Sat here smiling, shaking my head as he tried to remember which alien from Star Trek that Max Mayfield reminds him of... So Jim. So funny. So real.

And... watched the storm on TWC on mute and made notes on things I am doing ... like practising my Russian.

As I am watching strong cells are popping up all over. And we aren't talking BANDS of rain, we aren't talking eye walls, we are talking fast pop up cells that show up on the radar RED and can contain dangerous weather that can hit at any time while you are sleeping thinking the storm is far away from you hitting somewhere else.

It's storms like this that make me want to beg people to buy Weather radios with alarms so that you can be warned in the middle of the night if such red cells pop up near you and a warning is posted.

Storms like this only take a few cells possessing twisters to get the name Alberto finally retired. You don't need to be hit by a strong eye wall to have death tolls climbing from some trailer park hit at 4 am as Alberto makes landfall far away from your trailer park.

So..that is why I am staying up at Midnight watching TWC... reading posts online and here blogging.

And, today I realized what Jim and others know so well. I am a Hurricane Addict. A junkie. A weather fanatic.

Weather Lover is too weak a term..

What people don't understand about those of us who track is...

It's an ongoing learning process. It's very cerebral and very gut based at the same time.

We are processing information as it comes in and and talking to eachother in real time mode. We are constantly rethinking, reevaluating, formulating new ideas and running the models back and forth in our minds while we are talking in the way that Chess masters play chess on 3 level boards.

For some... it's a gambling mentality at work. Constantly replaying mathematical equations in our heads.

For others... it's watching history walk it's way across a hurricane map you brought home from your local grocery store. Will this storm today be like the one that hit Miami in 26 or the one that buried the islands off the coast of Savannah killing 100s or people or perhaps... blow up like the 1935 storm did as it bore down onto the fragile chain of islands known as "the Florida keys"

We are watching history, we are playing a mental game, we are problem solving and testing our solutions like Jr. Scientists about to win a blue ribbon at the local county fair.

We are friends. Sometimes close friends.

We think alike and we enjoy the same things.

And, we all have numbers scribbled on papers or bills or any piece of paper sitting by or we have by accident typed into some email (or blog) cords of longitude and latitude and we all love the sky, the clouds, the wind in our face and messing up our hair and deep down we are all kids again having fun shooting the breeze with on another.

And, on days when a Named Storm is within a few hundred miles of our city.. and the wind picks up and the rain starts to fall we take off for the beach to watch the waves come on shore.

Bobbi..
a Weather Addict... a real weather junkie.. admitting it here on my blog.

And...despite what TWC says on it's new commercials... I'd say the Hurricane Experts are sometimes not on TWC but on www.hurricanecity.com and other sites online. You read, you get to know who knows what and you realize you are working with real experts... degrees or no degrees. Not everyone has the chance, opportunity or need to go to college and get a degree in something.. doesn't mean you can't be an expert.