Ophelia... Tropics... Home in South Florida... Post Hurricane Irma... Still Cleaning Up

Ophelia, currently on the other side of the Atlantic, a strengthening Tropical Storm forecast to be the 10th straight hurricane of the 2017 Hurricane Season. We got a real streak going there it seems. But, "we" are not worrying about it this morning. Obviously there are some shipping concerns and it is expected to hit the Azore Islands.

This is a great product the NHC puts out.

Kind of the State of the Day Map.

Some waves...

... some marine discussion.

You can see Ophelia owning the Atlantic.

Not much going on.

Worth noting weather from Nate remains.

Being watched...

Some westbound tropical waves.

Upper Level Lows.

As you know I'm in Florida for the next several days before going back to North Carolina. There's a holiday named Simchas Torah that you can Google which is a happy, fun holiday on the Jewish Calendar and I'll be as home as it gets this year for that. On Sunday my brother is getting remarried and the family is in town hanging out and about getting together and celebrating family and life. The weather seems to be cooperating for now though this weekend is forecast to be messy as a tropical wave mixing it up with an Upper Level Low slides across Florida. 

If anything tropical pops up I'll update the blog but not much is expected for the  next few days. Models do indicate it gets busy again soon enough. This time of year we transition from Cape Verde Waves and systems forming in the MDR (main development region) to home grown, close in things that pop up at the tail end of cold fronts or sometimes an Upper Level Low works it's way down to the surface. There's a variety of ways to get tropical action in October and November. 

On the 17th a cold front drops down.

And then it turns around.

Goes Stationary.

Worth watching there..

..as well as moisture in the Caribbean.

There's a plethora of links on Spaghetti Models.

http://spaghettimodels.com/

We are all always watching.

It's hard to explain how the air feels in South Florida early in the morning .... the sun isn't really up high enough for it to be balmy as soft tropical breezes are always blowing. You actually feels it in a very different way than most places. It's hard to explain unless you've been here when there was a strong Easterly Flow pushing onshore. I went out early in the morning before sunrise to watch the sun rise but it was a quiet sunrise. I just stood there enjoying the breeze and the cooler temperatures. The trees make so much noise as early birds soar about squawking and every moment the Sun rearranges the light onto the clouds and it's like an atmospheric kaleidoscope. And I just stood there leaning back against the car watching the birds fly around.. palm fronds rustling... a distant dog barking. South Florida is a very alive organic place. This neighborhood Is very diverse with clusters of small Florida Bungalows next to 6000 square foot mansions. People taking their babies for a walk in a stroller, joggers jogging by.. hurricane Irma debris everywhere as it still has it been picked up here yet., You see a lot of shutters still up as some people obviously aren't taking them down until they put the holiday decorations up in December.  Bright electricity and cold air conditioning rules this town and everyone knows that hurricanes will be around until November this year.. if we still had the King Orange Bowl Jamboree parade we quickly would take the shutters down so the tourists didn't see what it really looks like in South Florida after a hurricane. Seriously it's just a very real place that is hard to explain to people who live in other parts of the country. People live differently in South Florida than in most places ... because it's Florida.

I'm not going to pretend it's not hot it was really, really, really hot last night but we sat outside on Hollywood Boulevard with the fans blowing,  having a drink listening to an musician playing at Chocolada..... some of the kids came by..... people came went.... they sat down and hung around. 

That was last night... but this morning everything seemed fresh again, cooler while I watched the sun climb higher in the sky. I watched the neighborhood come alive. Someone's lawn sprinklers were watering a lawn, a distant garbage truck was rumbling down a nearby street.. The sky in South Florida blends everything together binding everything in a way you don't see in other parts of the country. There so much diversity here on this one block... Some homes are painted bright Art Deco colors with heavily landscape lawns. Old 1930 small bungalows with palm trees all around them and their front porches still boarded up. A cute little house down the block has so many palm trees ....some guy lives there and God Bless His Heart he  keeps planting palm trees. I love it some are real small and older ones are real tall. Ficus trees are uprooted... Bougainvillea thinned out... And people are out and about walking in the street pushing strollers walking dogs waving hello as they pass by. English, Spanish and little bit of English with Russian accents punctuate the early morning air. Two Peruvian guys down the block are flying their flag for the soccer games.

It's a crazy kind of place very laid-back nice..   and then the sun comes up and people retreat into their houses with air conditioning set to 65 degrees or go to work in shiny, tall cold air conditioned buildings. Granted some people work outside, how they do it I don't know... I guess they get used to it.

As for me we have people coming in for a wedding ....for the last of the Fall Jewish holidays and everyone is hanging out and hanging about. The kids took their kids that would be my grandkids to Dave and Busters yesterday where they went when they were small. Noisy, still there... filled with kids and parents playing games. There's a rumor on Snapchat that the Meyer boys took over the karaoke at Whiskey Tangos last night for my brother's Bachelor Party.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas got it right years ago when she said it's about the breeze it's about the breeze never stops blowing in off Biscayne Bay... Its that breeze that makes people stay live work and and play South Florida. By the way she wasn't always old like the picture they show. As a young girl she would sail on the bay over to Key Biscayne to have picnics on the beach with her friends when Miami was young.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjory_Stoneman_Douglas

Sometimes the breeze blows really strong and a hurricane comes to town on that breeze trees fall down roof tiles go Blowin in the Wind people chop up the trees stack them up high and then they get taken away and it's Paradise again.

And that's life in South Florida after the hurricane alright any day and then a year... It's a tropical life.

All these pictures are from ONE block.

Sort of shows the neighborhood well..

Once it's picked up...

...it's as if it never happened.

Here they took the shutters down....

...but not putting them away yet.

No way are they taking down the shutters here..

Love this... that's the way this place rolls.

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter

Ps... Thanks for listening to me share my rambles on what it's like to be home... after a hurricane. Still messy but still beautiful and enjoying time out and about with my kids, my friends, their friends and listening to the music of the trees, the breeze and the Ukrainian guitarist

Did you know my spell checker changes tourists to terrorists? Totally makes sense..