Tropical Update ... 911 Weekend & Dramatic Flooding

Track:


Somehow this morning the tropics seem to pale in comparison to the other events that are going on in the world. There really wasn't anything to post and there really are no immediate threats to anywhere of the tropical kind today.

I'll start off with Nate as he is closest to land and stronger and much more organized than Maria. Mind you a lot of people could explain all of Nate's deficiencies but I think he shows us what a real tropical storm should look like when it is spinning, pumping and you can find the center. Nate is spinning quite beautifully, tight little neat system.

The NHC has decided to throw all the mixed up models aside and go with one destination for Nate, which was their original destination. However, he is stationary and until he moves we are still in forecasting mode.

As for Maria... the discussion read sort of spacey if you ask me. It was like saying we really aren't sure IF Maria IS R E A L L Y a tropical storm still but we are going to just go with it and write an advisory. The planes had a problem earlier, the satellite imagery is iffy... Let's be real, Maria is about to pass over the islands and I think we will get some real input from the islands just how strong or weak she really is so that mystery should be resolved soon. She has slowed down and is possibly making a move or taking dance lessons before hitting the resort towns of the
Leeward Islands and the Virgin Islands by tomorrow night. We will have some real information on Maria soon. She's weak, she's a big area of weak weather with some strong winds and she should put

Doesn't sound like an exact science here:

"IT APPEARS THAT MARIA HAS SLOWED DOWN TODAY. SURFACE OBSERVATIONS
SUGGEST THAT THE LOW-LEVEL CENTER...SUCH AS IT IS...IS LOCATED TO
THE SOUTHWEST OF THE MID-LEVEL CENTER SEEN IN VISIBLE SATELLITE
IMAGERY. IT WOULD NOT BE SURPRISING IF THE SURFACE CENTER REFORMS
CLOSER TO THE MID-LEVEL CENTER OVERNIGHT OR ON SATURDAY. IN FACT...
THIS MAY BE WHY THE GLOBAL MODELS SHOW A TRACK FARTHER NORTH ACROSS
THE LEEWARD ISLANDS."

Sounds like a kid trying to explain to his teacher what happened with his homework...



If you ask me she at least has some sort of circulation center and is at least a Tropical Depression. I don't buy a downgrade to a wave, looks better than a wave. A Tropical Storm? Well, it appears.............

Either way her track remains the same, she turns north and misses Florida.

And Katia is going fast out to sea and leaving our side of the Atlantic. Amazingly, no one seems to have told her that she is too far north to still be a Hurricane, she's putting on quite a show up there in the North Atlantic.



Otherwise.... it's going to be a weekend in parts of the North where people are going to clean up after the floods or put together a plan on how they are going to clean up or put together a plan for what to do if their house was washed away and they have no home to go back to... It's a real mess up there and TWC is covering it far better than I could except to say how sorry I am that people have to go through such tragedy.

I don't know why there is this false perception of safety in other parts of the country that disasters only happen in California and Florida. The strongest earthquake ever in the United States was in Missouri/Arkansas and Tennessee in that region where all three come together. Fires and flood happen anywhere. Twisters hit random cities. Terror can find you anywhere you live not just NYC and Washington DC.

We have to be happy and give thanks when our lives our "normal" and they are not torn apart by the misery that tore apart the lives of people living in cities in Vermont or the lives of the families of people whose loved ones died on the planes in 911 or on the ground or at World Trade Center.

So, on this quiet Friday afternoon I am going to finish preparing for the Jewish Sabbath, put some more food up, figure out what to wear to a friend's house for dinner and give thanks that I can sit with friends and family enjoying a meal and appreciating all I have in my life.

I suggest you do the same...whether you gather around a table with your loved ones or go for a walk on the beach or have coffee in a cute coffee bar in a busy city. Enjoy life, give thanks and take a moment to pause and think on the fact that it has been ten years since I sat online with my crazy friend early in the morning, like we did every morning in September discussing the tropics and suddenly my friend stopped typing back... my kids came in and said a plane had hit the World Trade Center and my daughter who had just gotten back from Israel said immediately, "it's terrorism" while my younger kids thought that was crazy, it had to be an accident.

We all remember where we were when we heard that JFK was shot and the younger generation remembers where they were when they heard the planes went into the World Trade Center.

It's humbling and important and more important this weekend than Nate and Maria.

Besos Bobbi