Canary Island Storm? Shades of Christopher Columbus...

An intense little storm system has developed in the North Atlantic near the Canary Islands that may bring rain to Portugal down the road... in February, out of the season, not really tropical and yet it looks pretty tropical while watching loops.

Subtropical? Tapping into warm moisture from the ITZ it gives the illusion of being a hurricane ....yet we know it's not hurricane season and it's not really tropical.



But, it is worth looking at and remembering that Columbus has often been criticized for what he referred to as a cyclone in February on one of his voyages. It was obviously a cyclone like storm and exceptions to the rule often happen and this might be the same sort of storm that he wrote of in his logs. I mean it was before the actual dictionary of meteorology was written and a storm is a storm by any other name, especially one that spins like a cyclone.

Take a look and see....

http://www.intellicast.com/Storm/Hurricane/AtlanticSatellite.aspx?animate=true

On his voyage back to Spain the storm hit and he became separated from his other ship, both ships thought the other went down in the storm and indeed when he did reach port he discovered that over 100 ships had been said to be lost at sea. After some time in the Azores and Lisbon he made it on to Spain. Over time his account of the storm at sea (unusual for that time of year)was viewed as possibly a made up excuse to not go directly back to Spain. Accounts from other ships and records show he did indeed experience some Valentines Day sort of storm in Mid-February but that was before we had terms like hurricanes, tropical storms, sub-tropical storms, gale centers...etc.

Again... a storm by any other name is a storm. And, I think it deserves some mention at least here on Hurricane Harbor.

Now, my next thought would be... was 1493 an El Nino year? Okay, this is how we think, tropical weather people... everything relates to the tropics.

Here in North Carolina, I have a bar mitzvah this weekend for a good friend's son and next week another bar mitzvah before returning to the land of the eternal sunshine and intermittent thunderstorms and tropical showers. Hard to believe a week ago I was walking on freshly, fallen orchid petals on the walkway in near 80 degree weather. There is a little area down the hill where the snow melts and turns into a little river of water which froze over last night into an ice pond...which is about to melt as the temperature flirts with getting above the freezing line. Wondering if next week's bar mitzvah is going to get another snow storm as a guest, there is talk up this way.



Torn between taking a walk in the snow and lying here and watching the sun make patterns with the shadows from the trees across the white, glittering snow covered lawn. I need to do some writing... maybe a walk after lunch.



And, here in NC it's a snow day. Seems it's cheaper to let the snow melt today and worry on ice tomorrow than to try digging out the buses and clearing the roads. Temps in 40s tomorrow with possible rain may get rid of the snow... or cause an ice problem. Surprises me that snow in NORTH Carolina can shut down a big city, I mean it's not like snow in Florida. And, my daughter living in Ottawa is amused as she said she walks to work in snow drifts taller than she is but I suppose it's all relative. Sort of woosy, wimpy place if you ask me... it's like they want the seasons but not the snow and there is nowhere to go around here anyway at night so easy to stay home and make a fire and eat. Food and liquor I notice are real cheap up here and they raise eating and baking to an art form. Seems, they go sometimes years without any real accumulation so their way of dealing with it is to wait for it to melt. Reminds me of how Russia dealt with Napoleon...

So, that's it from my little winter wonderland where I am ...as always...watching the tropics. No snow day for my son today in Miami, he returned to school from his winter vacation with a new "hot" black cast on his elbow and in a different carpool, one I hope and pray will not take out a palm tree on the way to school. Hey, if I had to hit a tree, would hit a palm tree any day over a pine. One day in the summer I was here, looking at some flowers on the butterfly tree and out of the corner of my eye this big, tall, pine tree s l o w l y fell over, slammed into the house, broke up into pine logs. A few people came out, opened their doors and went back in with the comment, "oh they do that all the time" ... as in no wind, nada... nothing just TIMBER... maybe a fat squirrel doing gymnastics or something. I looked into the little woods that are now snowy woods and there lay two or three other pines trees that had simply fallen over as "they do that" ....

Let's hope my son heals fast as he and my brother and counting on that Category 5 storm that some psychic Nicky someone predicted will wipe out Miami...

Up north they have snow days... in Miami we have hurricane days ... it's pretty much all we get. I'd rather have a hurricane than an earthquake or Volcano any day and twisters are fun to watch on TV but well...we all pick our poison don't we?

Besos Bobbi

Get out and enjoy the weather where you are today and remember sometimes storms hit even out of season, especially El Nino seasons. Still waiting for that Ice Storm ... never seen an Ice Storm up close and personal.