Hurricane Harbor

A writer and a tropical muse. A funky Lubavitcher who enjoys watching the weather, hurricanes, listening to music while enjoying life with a sense of humor and trying to make sense of it all!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

2011 Hurricane Season Begins with a NRL Invest Off SE Coast



In motion: http://www.intellicast.com/Global/Satellite/Infrared.aspx?animate=true



Whatever it is should be fast lived, moving fast and close in to the coast and getting closer but whether this has any chance on developing or we will look towards the SW Carib for something to possibly form later in the week.

Either way you cut it... it's gonna get busy sooner rather than later with this much latent energy.

For now this looks like a dress rehearsal but only time will tell.

Sweet Tropical Dreams
BobbiStorm

National Hurricane Center on Facebook & Twitter for 2011 Cane Season



http://twitter.com/#!/NHC_Atlantic

The tropics may be quiet, but the National Hurricane Center stirred up a storm of comments and discussion when they announced they will be joining the social media with a Facebook page and Twitter account so seems like they will be tweeting away like the rest of us starting tomorrow on June 1st!

Why this should surprise anyone is beyond me. I'm know positively sure that the gang at the NHC knows how to go online, use the Internet and hook up with other weather enthusiasts to give them the correct bottom line information in the most timely manner. They know how to text, they know how to twitter, what comes next for them I can only wonder ;) Well, they could tweet seeing as so far they haven't yet tweeted, but imagine they are waiting until tomorrow.

There is already a plethora of wave mongers out there online making every westbound wave a Category Five Hurricane that will wipe out Miami, Tampa and then New Orleans before it has even convected it's first low pressure cell. It's time the NHC gave the official forecast at a place where people are going to get the news. Bravo for them! Very few people today sit around waiting for the six o'clock news. Most TWC fans get their info from Twitter more than watching television. Glad the NHC caught the wave of the future and staying in tune with the present ever changing face of news distribution.

During the Japanese Earthquake, my best news came from the oddest places and Russia Today's Tweeter Feed is now a regular on my cellphone's Twitter updates.

It's an ever changing world we live in and it's good to keep up with the times. If you can email and send out photos from a hurricane hunter in the middle of a hurricane, it's time to send out updates on Facebook. Many in the younger generation especially, use Facebook and Twitter as their main source of email. More people will be reached and more lives saved. If the teenagers who set sail over the weekend for a pleasure trip around Biscayne Bay in 1992 could have received info from their Facebook page on their cellphone they most likely would have known that Andrew was intensifying and had turned due west. Kids may not watch the news but they definitely watch their Facebook News and Twitter Feed.

Stephanie Abrams and the gang at The Weather Channel regularly chat with their viewers on Twitter. I suppose it was only a matter of time.

Either way, you will now be able to stay informed on the storm in real time as you scroll through your Facebook News Feed.

I mean we all knew that they knew how to post, text and tweet... one can only wonder what's next for the NHC after this.

Stay tuned, to the blog that keeps you informed and amused at the constant stream of news on the tropics.

Tomorrow..........The Start of the Hurricane Season 2011! As always check back here at Hurricane Harbor and check with the National Hurricane Center for the official forecast.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Besos Bobbi
Ps... NY was awesome, but it's good to be back home in Hurricane Country.

http://twitter.com/#!/HurricaneHarbor
My site... Follow me on twitter as I try to tweet and blog in 2011!

https://www.facebook.com/US.NOAA.NationalHurricaneCenter.gov

https://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Hurricane-Center/111390691297?sk=info
(fan site)

Monday, May 30, 2011

Been in Brooklyn, Actually Crown Heights... Will be back with daily posts soon, promise....

No, this is not some virus related message I have been away, in Brooklyn.. Crown Heights to be specific for almost the last two weeks visiting family and taking part in some family celebrations.

I'll be back home ready to write intensively, informative posts about developing Tropical Weather and ridiculously, silly, rambling reports about my personal life.

Just you wait Henry Higgins, Just you wait... as the song goes...

For today, it's gray and rainy as we pack up to leave Crown Heights..which is my home base in some many ways but well, it's not very tropical.

The truth is New York City can and WILL get hit again by a hurricane sometime in the near future, it's just a matter of historical reality. So will Savannah and Tampa and all those cities that think they are Teflon protected and cannot get a direct hit.

Time has proven again and again they did in the past and they will again.

So, if you live anywhere near the coast in a place that is on your friendly local hurricane map, now is the time to stock up, make plans and think on what you would do if you were hit by a hurricane.

What would you take with you if you evacuate?
Who would you notify?
Where would you go?
How would you prepare for the storm if you stay and where would you stay? Would you go to your parents house or party at your own apartment (note to teenagers, do not party...)..

You get the idea.

If you have kids buy lots of batteries and crayons (which do not ever need batteries) and anything and everything that will keep them busy when the house has survived but you are without electric for two weeks. Think on it.

As for me, been without Internet and the television for most of the these last two weeks and my cell fone does NOT get good service in the basement even on the wifi setting. Truth is I have been too busy to obsess on the tropics as my life has kept me beyond busy otherwise.

I've sat in the park on Lefferts and watched kids play with each other, running around the slides and the swings. I've watched little children chase after pigeons that they never will catch and race away for the Ice Cream Truck. I've stared at Ferris Wheels in Coney Island and stood for hours in 770 on Eastern Parkway talking to friends and talking to God. I saw old friends I have not seen since 1973... and that's a long, long time.

I walked streets I know like the back of my hand up and down and back again. I bought Granola Bars from the Jamaican market that has Rebbe cards in Arabic writing. Crown Heights is such an awesome blend of everything and anything all rolled up in one. I walked tree lined steets marveling at how the poplar trees branches reach across the street to the other side, yet they don't seem to fall down. I've stared up at rose trees laden with pink roses decorating a vacant yard as if they were planted there just for me to gaze upon while walking by.... on my way somewhere else. Crown Heights is not what people think, it's hard to explain and it's impossible to understand unless you have lived here a long time or visited often.

It's a mish mosh of every culture rolled into one, walking fast up and down busy streets filled with signs and smiles that welcome you home.

I had one of the best burgers of my life last night at Empire Grill and ate the whole thing. Then we walked over to Nosh World and got some pareve ice cream, in a store that is the Anti-Whole Foods of Crown Heights and walked to 770 for a late night prayer service before walking down Crown, past Matisyahu's house down the block, past the yeshiva, past Troy Avenue which I rarely used to cross til we got the basement apartment we were staying in and the realization hit me fully I am really leaving Crown Heights after a long, almost two week stay here.

And, the realization also hit me with a brief giggle and a sense of guiltiness for not writing all week.... that the 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season is just around the corner and I won't be back in New York until late in August for another family party.

So, again... take stock of your house, your neighborhood, your trees that need pruning, your canned food supplies that need stocking up, medical supplies, pain killers and batteries and crayons and whatever little incidentals you made need and get ready because wherever you live and whatever you are doing... the Hurricane Season is starting soon...whether you are ready or not. It's better to be ready.

Remember, hurricanes are the one natural disaster that you CAN PREPARE for...

I listened to a woman speak by electronic hook up from Tokyo who addressed the Annual Convention of Neshei Chabad speaking on the earthquake and it's aftermath and the things the Chabad House did to try and make the lives of those in the devastated regions a little bit better. Earthquakes have no real warning. Neither do Twisters ....

Hurricanes give us some warning, we have the gift of time so use that gift wisely and prepare, educate yourself and make a plan. Plans are good. Make a Plan B. Options are always good in fluid situations ...

Going to go get some coffee and finish packing and stop by the bakery and get some sushi for the road. Got to love Crown Heights, just got to...

Besos Bobbi

http://www.empiregrillny.com/
(or what is known around here is the kitchen that never sleeps and delivers really fast in the middle of the night)

https://www.empiregrillny.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=45&category_id=6&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2&vmcchk=1&Itemid=2

Monday, May 09, 2011

Watching Wicked Weather... While Waiting for the Hurricane Season...



Just sitting around watching dumbfounded as the Mighty Mississippi keeps on rolling, the tornadoes keep forming and the Hurricane Season hides it's face just around the corner.

It's lingering there somewhere....

But, for now we have record floods and an awesome low pressure system off of New England that is producing what looks like a Noreaster/Hurricane but is really just a storm at sea.



While Rome worries on some age old prediction by a dead astrologer/geologist and people around the world start to sing doomsday songs about 2012 I am just taking it all in and wondering what kind of Hurricane Season 2011 will bring.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_italy_earthquake_prediction_odd

The picture above was taken in downtown Raleigh, a few weeks ago after the tornado played hop scotch through the State Capital.

So.... enjoy this time old song, about a time old tradition... and remember this fact of mother nature. Rivers flood, they have a flood plains for a reason and rivers from the Nile to the Mississippi have been flooding forever... long before Global Warming and probably before the poles shifted...

Sorry I have been quiet, but been traveling a lot this past month and not sure what state I am in half the time. I'll be posting more regularly as we get closer to June 1st!

Besos Bobbi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s

Thursday, May 05, 2011

May... A Look Back At April and a Look Ahead

Less than one month to the Atlantic Hurricane Season of 2011!!

A look back at April...

Tornadoes are bad .... exciting to watch but deadly if you are in their path.

Osama is Dead.

Obama is Alive... proof of birth certificate and all...

Miami was wonderful, Passover was busy, crazy, fun and a last minute trip to New York that was amazing. One long Meyer Family Sushi Fest in the Big Apple.

The pollen was bad, the rains washed the pollen away.

The blossoms were beautiful, the rains washed the blossoms away.

Bring on May...

Bring it on!!

And, get ready for for the start of the 2011 Hurricane Season.. make lists, stock up, say a prayer and count the days down on the calendar because this has been one wicked year of weather and I don't see any reason for that trend to stop now..and there ain't no reasoning with Hurricane Season...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg-zwba7l5w

Besos Bobbi....