My Summer Watching Bertha Spin

Enjoy this long but entertaining post with some private jokes thrown in for those who need to know ;) For the rest of you... it's only been 2 weeks but it just seems like we have been tracking Bertha all summer long!

On July 1st, 2008 an incredibly, intense, well organized Tropical Wave named as Invest 92L and soon to be Tropical Storm 2 and then the ever popular early season storm name Bertha. What's in a name? Ask Shakespeare, perhaps he knew a good numerologist. We are days away it seems from writing her obit.

A look back at our earliest discussion at Hurricane City's Message Board:
http://members.boardhost.com/hurricanecity/msg/1215000838.html

I watched her on the NRL invest, I watched her on the Euromet, I watched her grow and spin on message board links and at Noaa and Skeetobite and on the very intensive Caribbean and Atlantic Satellite Imagery:

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/trop-atl.html

And..she grew, despite all odds, filled with dry air intrusion illustrated in a private email group by some of the world's finest and best meteorologists and we watched her ooze her way westward despite all early reports calling for her early demise. This loop to meteorologists and weather lovers is what lava lamps were to hippies in the Sixties.

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/real-time/tpw2/natl/main.html

Sit back, have some red wine or an ice cold Guinness and get lost in tropical fantasies.



Now, despite all odds and much SAL (African Dust not a really, handsome garage mechanic in Jersey) and cool water temps Bertha has managed to hang on and make it all the way up to almost 30 north and we are waiting for her to do switch over from the Tango to an Irish Jig and head NE off to the British Isles but nooooo Bertha doesn't want to go. Models show diversion on intensity, timing and whether or not Bertha wants a new Fall Wardrobe or whether she wants a purse from Coach or red heels from Prada or a cute flimsy new V neck top to wear! Only time will tell what this long lasting, tough and feisty lady cane wants next from her meteorological voyeurs watching from their laptops while they lie in bed swigging their cold brew and debating whether to turn on the History Channel or watch old tapes of FSU beating Penn State one more time..

I mean how much can you take already? It's not like she's moving. Avila in a moment of exasperation at the NHC writes "AFTER A WEEK OR SO...I AM RUNNING OUT OF THINGS TO SAY ABOUT BERTHA. "

Poor baby, stuck locked up in the big room at the NHC while his friends are out partying he is stuck writing about Bertha who has fantasies of being Ginger in her head. Maybe we should interview Bertha herself, ask her what she wants to do, where she wants to go, what storm was the biggest inspiration in her life and if she wants sushi for dinner.

I bet she's dreaming of 1971, the perfect summer, the perfect storm of loop de loops and longevity.



But we feel more like we are stuck on Gilligan's Island getting a 3 week tour when all we were supposed to have was a 3 hour trip.



Sooo.... what have I done otherwise? I've changed my hair color twice, well more a rinse than a color. Staying with the dark brown auburn/Roasted Chestnut, sorry but that Spiced Tea color was just a little bit intense.

I've been to Key West and back twice!

I have become a Cleveland Browns fan this summer, really, cannot tell you how many google updates I have read on them. Brett Favre has been pushed down a rung to back up quarterback and the Miami Dolphins have a new coach... again... and Dan Marino has lost over 20 pounds on Nutrisystem he is still listening to his old coach it seems!

Tony Snow died and Tim Russert died. Been a hard summer on news men.

Iraq wants us to get out before any American Politician seems to and I have heard that in November the first illegal alien will become Vice President of the United States in a bid for the Hispanic vote. The other party tried to find a Martian but hey Martians are afraid of Hurricanes. They should have tried to find someone from the planet Jupiter where a hurricane rages 365 days a year. Give a look if you want to take time out from staring at Bertha spin her way into Sub-tropical Fame.

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13963-third-red-spot-erupts-on-jupiter.html



So...this is a Tropical Meltdown minute in the life of a meteorological voyeur waiting for her newest wave to come off Africa and plop into the Atlantic Ocean and become the next Invest. Would you believe I sit up with friends at night, in the middle of the night watching rainstorms over Africa :) Yep, had a real nice little hurricane party last night we did ;) So glad Bertha put some people round here over the edge and reminded them of their priorities in life.. including me!

And... the newest Invest can be seen at the NRL as the models take it due west into the Southern Caribbean or possibly crashing onto South America but I've spoken with a few that say the set up would allow it to move further north.. we'll see, time will tell and the NHC will advise us and Wikipedia probably already has a title for it.

Bertha:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Bertha_(2008)

Newest Wave on the Block:



Sort of looks like some old sailor named Cristobal, staring back at us ... like Father Time, like Kris Kringle, like the Hermit in Tarot... what kind of storm will you be Cristobal?

Stay tuned. I am going to take a nice hot shower and enjoy my Sunday watching news, watching storms, taking a field trip somewhere and waiting for my son the meteorological boy wonder and his very cutesy, smart wife to give birth. Come on Shuky, Brad and Angelina did it... you guys can too! But... am NOT leaving town until after hearing Bill Gray speak. Iowa can wait and hope you have wireless for my laptop if you want me to leave the tropics with tropical waves spinning.

Next Invest is just leaving port yet as she is still over Africa




Cheat Sheet for watching African waves on TWC's interactive sat/radar imagery:

http://geology.com/world/africa-satellite-image.shtml

www.weather.com



http://oiswww.eumetsat.org/SDDI/cgi/listImages.pl?m=prod,sa=9,pr=RGB,c=AIR

You can see the new invest and the one yet to be on this two for the above two fer one link!

Love and kisses Bobbi (Mommy) aka Lois ;)
Think I'll paint my toe nails Passionflower Purple or Mango Orange or maybe Frangipangi Pink!

Oh come on ... you knew I'd youtube it didn't you :P



notice how the Professor LOVES Ginger ;) Poop poop Be Doo!