Tropical Storm Agatha Hits Guatemala... Will it Reform in the Carib?

Guatemala beset with ash from a volcano mixed in with rain falling from Tropical Storm Agatha... what a week for tragedy in that country. At least 12 people have died and that death toll will climb higher before the now downgraded Agatha moves across Central America into the Caribbean.

Now comes the 60 million dollar question.. will the moisture from the remnants of Agatha reform into a tropical system in the Carib and head ENE or NE towards the West Coast of Florida and the Keys? Until the moisture makes it past the land mass I wouldn't trust any model doing fantasy tracking. One model keeps taking it straight towards the West Coast of Florida as if it wanted to do the Beeline Expressway. Others don't do much with it and others take it east where the moisture messes up cruise ship holidays and nothing more. Time will tell. But, the fact that the storm went inland and not westbound out to sea says a lot. More so this blurb from the longer NHC Tropical Atlantic Discussion this morning says a lot..

"UPPER HIGH OVER THE REMNANTS OF TROPICAL DEPRESSION AGATHA
COVERS THE W CARIBBEAN W OF 80W"

The loops below show the moisture train heading into the Carib better than anything I can add...give a look for yourself.

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

http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_wv_east_loop-12.html

I've never been a big believer in "crossover storms" as they rarely happen and are usually jest for off-color jokes by bored meteorologists waiting for the real Atlantic Hurricane season to start but they do happen. Arthur was one such storm... "sort of" in 2008. Happens, not usually the stuff that legends are made of...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Arthur_(2008)

Either way... on top of the volcano they now have flooding rain from Agatha in Guatemala. A tragedy in itself and a deadly start to the EastPac season. A storm that did not go quietly out to sea...

A year of tragedies and our hearts and prayers go out to Haiti hoping it will stay safe from more tropical troubles as they attempt to rebuild.

As for the Oil Leak..

Did they really think they were going to do some recycling trick with golf balls, tires and mud? Were we really supposed to believe this would work? Will anything work in the near future as the economic devastation for the Gulf Coast for both tourism and more so the fishing industry take a back seat to BP's attempts to find a cheap, quick fix solution that saves them money as BP's main line is always their bottom line and as an old tracker friend round these parts used to say "they don't give a rat's ass" about anyone else as much as they do their own bottom line. When you get into bed with sleazy people and corporations you end up paying the price down the road. We expect integrity and compassion from a company that could not even put together a viable back up plan? Would that be akin to some rich kid with AIDS sleeping with every prostitute he sees without using protection? Only way I can think to put it that right now... I have heard Fitzgerald's quote mentioned a few times.

"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made . . ."

Both apply and pretending an underground oil well will not one day blow is like wanting to believe that every poor girl in America will end up marrying a prince and living happily ever after. It's not living in the real world. Accidents happen... usually though we have back up plans to clean them up.

Very sad tragedy unfolding and even sadder is the wait and see response from this administration that seems to have believed that BP would be accountable and fix whatever mess might happen. Nothing is sadder than watching naivete die a fast death and we are watching in real time as Obama and the whole nation learns a sad lesson.

Where do we go from here is the question?

We need to start rethinking finding new clean sources of energy... just my two cents.

So..take a break from the new hottest reality TV show online of watching the oil leak out in voluminous plumes and try to enjoy what is left of your holiday weekend.

As for me... I am at a wedding in Maryland, one of those three day events at three locations and about to have some Post Wedding Brunch before heading out to the beach and feeling the breeze and watching sailboats slide by in the beautiful water... and giving thanks this memorial day weekend for the men and women who helped this country in peacetime and war time and hoping something works to save some of the most beautiful beaches and coastlines anywhere in this country from Texas to Florida and especially my Florida Keys.

Besos Bobbi
ps... how can a Hilton Hotel NOT have free wifi in the room and only has a cable link and is decorated in old fashioned Blade Runner 1980s style... strange, not the way we make Hiltons down in South Florida ...