Waiting on Tornado Season... Winter Leaving Slowly... Hurricane Season 34 Days Away. Ever Try to Understand Storm Chasers?

It's that time of year when we switch over from worrying on winter storms to wondering where the Spring storms are and when the Hurricane Season will really get going. Many are calling for an active early part of the Hurricane Season that being June/July/August with the possibility of a May named storm forming. You can see from the loop above that "cold fronts" are still moving down towards South Florida.  Severe weather for now is not showing it's face across the US in any real way. 

Note winter has for the most part departed.

TWC has almost sounded apologetic of late regarding the lack of tornado chasing coverage. That may change in the next week or so but for now there has been a curious lack of tornadoes to talk about. In the realm of time everything has it's season. Baseball begins, then we watch our storm chaser friends chase tornadoes, then as the NFL Draft gets underway we count down the days until the beginning of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. There are 34 days to go; I know there are 34 days to go because my friend who has a count down going told me so.  To everything there is a season and I'm sure at some point we will be watching those storms clashing on the plains somewhere as one unmovable force meets another and the winds begin to spin up into Twisters. It's just a matter of time....

Also it's just a matter of time that people will need hurricane supplies on hand. Should you have a jar of Jerusalem Artichoke Relish someone gave you that you can't figure out what to do with... hold onto it because it will spice up your hurricane picnic as you eat the remains of what was in the fridge once the power is out come September...  Personally I stock up on cans of premade Cuban Coffee for my caffeine addiction in case the power goes out. To each his own.

And know that when the weather is quiet in one part of the world it is often raging somewhere else. In Israel this past week friends who made Aliyah from Miami were posting one video after another of what looked like Miami May Monsoons. Thunder, lightning and flash flooding both in the city and out in the Negev in areas that are known for flash flooding. People died, dams collapsed, rivers ran wild and weather doesn't pay attention to politics when it comes to who lives or who dies. Weather is an equal opportunity provider of tragedy. 

My suggestion to you is to assess your needs be it Severe Weather, Tornadoes or Hurricanes and stock up on what you can to help you survive. And, as always stay in top of late breaking weather be it an App or the old school weather radio or even asking Alexa. As for me I'm addicted to Mikes Weather Page and www.spaghettimodels.com. 

And, if you are finding yourself missing tornado coverage you may want to read a good book that explains how the mind of a storm chaser or meteorologist works. The how and why and just when it happens that a person falls in love passionately and obsessively with some form of weather. Whether you are obsessed with hurricanes or hail or tornadoes the process is the same in the way you fall in love and begin to follow the weather even if it means chasing the weather as some of us have done. Spoiler Alert once you do it .... you may be hooked for a life time and you may indeed also become hooked on weather. 

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Caught-Storm-Legendary/dp/1476796092

I read the book on my way to Seattle and I have to tell you it was my fastest trip to Seattle ever. Time which seems to hang still on a long set of flights unless you are the type to fall asleep and I am not.... moved fast the way an approaching line of storms roll across the Plains or the way a squall in the outer bands of a strong hurricane races across a city warning people it's time to hurry up and finish preparations because the hurricane is almost here. It's a good read. I'd recommend it personally to a psychologist as it is as much about how the human brain works as it is about barometric pressure and dry lines and humidity. 

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter

Ps... I didn't know Tim Samaras but I knew of him from his friends and his incredible pictures and impressive life work. I watched the funeral and pondered on how one minute you're wishing Carl Young happy birthday and suddenly he along with Tim and his son were gone with the wind. That's true. And, we've all wondered when someone would actually die in a storm that they were chasing while standing at the beach on rocks with the wind ripping at you trying to see in the middle of a strong squall. We've been lucky or maybe that was just dumb luck hard to say. I will say that a life lived fully and shared with people who you enjoy being with is.... well a life well lived.

5 Weeks to Go Until the Atlantic Hurricane Season of 2018. Patterns to watch...in the short term.

Today is a stormy day.

From Florida to the Carolinas.

Large storm system.

Leftover from a cold front in April.

A week away from May.

Another front on the way.

You know what dangling fronts mean?

Possible tropical development.

We are a week or two a way from really worrying on this set up but it's time to start wondering how and when the 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season will begin. It's also worth noting that the EPAC system begins in less than one month on May 15, 2018. It's not too early to start preparing for the 2018 Hurricane Season. If you have a blue tarp on your roof (and many people in Florida still do) then you most likely know the dangers of the hurricane season.  To those of you not directly affected by last year it's worth noting this year will be busy but that doesn't mean named storms will make landfall where last year's did so it's worth staying vigilant as we are still in a busy time period.

Moisture is moving West slowly on one level and tropical air is being pulled North by cold fronts still on the move. That convergence of energy often sees weak subtropical storms forming off the SE coast. Most of those systems go quietly out to sea, however some end up affecting areas along the coastline from Florida to the Carolinas much like today's strong weather system. It's an area worth watching and many are quietly watching it.

Long range models have even tossed up a few possibilities far off in early May. Okay May is not so far away.  Note @DaDabuh has been tweeting on possibilities today.  

So let's look at today's satellite loop shown above.

The image below shows intense energy.

Name that storm from 2012 shown below.

Now note a few things shown below as well.

Long dangling cold front.

They always bear watching come May.

Oh look a purple dot in the Atlantic.

Note the water off the SE coast is warm.

Note dark orange reds off SE coast.

And we are exactly 5 weeks away.

Hurricane Season June 1st.

Time to think on Hurricane Preparation.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/prepare/ready.php

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter

Ps... Thanks for waking me up ;)

2017 Hurricane Names Retired. Do you know the 2018 Hurricane Names? Never Too Soon in April to Think on the Hurricane Season.

I'm in Seattle enjoying a sunny morning that's illuminating the rain drops still clinging to the day lillies and the feel of cool fresh air. I took a walk over to the market and got a cup of the darkest coffee they sell. When you are from Miami you really expect "dark coffee" to taste just a drop less strong than Cuban Coffee. It ruins you forever in ways that makes sipping mild or strong coffee feel as if it is always coming up short. The other day I got incredible coffee at Van Gogh's for breakfast! Meanwhile I'm reading one story after another about the upcoming Hurricane Season. Seems it's finally not #toosoon to talk about hurricanes.

https://www.news4jax.com/weather/could-last-seasons-hurricane-model-reign-supreme-this-year

The article above talks about the four Category 4 Hurricanes that made landfall in the U.S. The article below talks about the retirement of the names Irma, Maria, Nate and Harvey.

https://nypost.com/2018/04/13/harvey-irma-and-maria-join-list-of-retired-hurricane-names/

Low riding tropical waves are dancing across the face of Africa on satellite imagery. It's not too soon to talk about it.

Just throwing these thoughts out there today from far away in Seattle. Are you ready for hurricane season? It will be here whether you are ready or not that's the way the world works.

What name will get retired at the end of the 2018 Hurricane Season. It IS too soon to tell just yet!

http://wgno.com/2018/04/12/whats-in-a-name-here-are-the-hurricane-names-for-2018/

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter.

Tornadoes South Florida. Broward County. A Day in My Social Media Life. Pictures. News When Ever You Want it in 2018

April 10th, 2018.

Yesterday the day that was...

The weather got a little wild yesterday in South Florida. Suddenly without warning and without advisories the wind began to whoosh, the sky turned extremely dark and the TV scrolled a sudden "Tornado Warning" for parts of Broward County. That means everyone on the County Line between Miami and Hollywood saw the fast developing wicked weather.

I was on the phone with my brother discussing our Passover Vacation (humor there) and he sent me the radar roll. I told him there would be tornadoes soon and I could see a hook echo forming between the "u" and the "d" in the word Ft. Lauderdale on the radar. Well it's more complicated than that as his mother-in-law recently passed away leaving them some cruise credits so he finally took his "Passover Cruise." I went to Miami to finally see the youngest grandchildren for Passover. We were comparing notes on Passover but moved on to the fast passing weather. Within seconds his TV began to scroll a Tornado Warning for his area (see above) and the adjacent area where several of my kids live.  He immediately took a picture of the lake behind his house. So I sent a message via WhatsApp to the family group warning the kids. They often have 100s of Apps but until someone in a WhatsApp tells them there's a weather event they don't know. As my oldest daughter and my youngest daughter explained to friends recently "don't need a weather app ... cause my mother..." yup they just wait for the phone to blow up from everyone posting pics on Whatsapp.

Within minutes one daughter grabbed her baby went outside and took pics. Is that a great pic or what?

The oldest son driving carpool took this picture of the line moving across South Broward County (basically North Miami these days as most of Miami Dade County just oozed North across the County line much like the tornado.) Looks like a May Monsoon but no it was the line that spawned the tornado. 

Then the Aventura son who just became a father grabbed his camera and sent this picture with the tag (the wind is pushing his car) as he was driving back from Broward near the tornado. His wife and sister told him "not to say that" which I suppose is a good method of dealing with stress. He then began sending pictures from the Wizard of Oz and making jokes. He knows his weather at least....

(not my child above...)

Yup, that's how yesterday played out in South Florida with tornado warnings popping up on the TV screen and Whatsapp Gone Wild and confirmation this morning of 2 relatively small tornadoes touching down briefly yesterday. One Twister was literally at FLL airport which is actually in Hollywood Florida where my kids now live but what is in a name? A relatively small tornado being relative to where you are when you are taking the video of the air moving in circles in your nice little gated community. Since moving back to Miami my older son has now had a hurricane and a tornado hover over his house. Great video but he's very private so not posting the video of the street on which he lives. My grandson is cute but no pics as that daughter is very private. Notice a trend here? Weather pictures always allowed on social media. Young kids use social media wisely. Baby Boomers just keep posting crap on Facebook thinking "no one will see it but my chosen friends" because they don't understand the screen shot is forever. Nothing personal to Baby Boomers but they can be a bit naive. They must have drunk the Kool Aid on "peace love and happiness" a bit too much to understand the real world the way Millenials do. I was raised in the 80s in LA personally. I know that because a Facebook Quiz told me so. And, you know what? In a way it's true as I really did "grow up" while living in LA in the 1980s. It's odd when LA seems more sane than life in Miami in the fast lane. 

I'm "home" in Raleigh packing for Seattle where I will be for a week because according to my smart grandson in Seattle his father "guilted me into it" (love that kid) and no he did not "guilt me into it" I love being in Seattle with him and his family. I love it beyond words. I just do not love packing again (it's wintry there the summer suitcase for Miami won't work) and I just put the house back together after getting back from Florida. I get home after the Mercury Retrograde ends (but who is counting besides Fishing and Me?) and then I have some time to relax before the holiday of Shavous and obsessing over the soon to come Hurricane Season. 

As I said yesterday in the blog.... When you have cold fronts pushing down across Florida where they hang out waiting for the next impulse in the Gulf of Mexico to slide through you get that much closer to the Hurricane Season. Before the Hurricane Season is the May Monsoon if you are really keeping track here. It's been dry in South Florida they could use rain. I asked my brother what if it's a "Dry May" (seen collectively as a possible problem come Hurricane Season) and he said "you cry in September" as it then depends on where and when that large huge Bermuda High sets up in relation to Florida.

Have a great day. Note it was on the news too. Some people (Baby Boomers posting cat pics and ranting on Facebook) still watch the news. If they went on Snapchat they'd know Rachel took the baby down to the pool, Shayna went out somewhere and is tired as... and my son is finishing his thesis at FIU on Architecture and enjoying life with his classmates while they are all still together before they have to use social media to stay in touch. 

That's the theme here. Staying in touch with social media. Through life events be they weather related or not it's the way of our world these days. I'm changing planes in Chicago because back when I made the ticket I figured winter would be gone by April 11th. Haha silly Miami girl... Everyone keep good thoughts please. I want to fall asleep in Seattle early tomorrow morning. Bought this book for my trip. Aside from the cover .... it had me at the first paragraph. A friend passes on after leading an incredible life doing what he loved most. Not a bad life, plus he shared what he was learning with others. It's all about sharing...

Much love.

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter

Time is slip sliding away.

One day I'm going to write a book called either "Me and Fishing" or "Playing with Peter" or "Living a Stormy Life" or....   gotta pack. Yes I bought a book because I'm old school and love turning the pages and the feel of the paper.

Time Waits For No One... Hurricane Season is Around the Corner.

Time flies when you are traveling. And, I've been traveling a lot lately. I'm back for a day or so ... so it occurs to me I should blog. I did think on putting a "Be Back Soon" sign on the blog or "Save This Space" but nah I'm going to say hello and try to put early April into perspective from my point of view.

I'm in Raleigh this morning and wondering why it looks more like Seattle with gray skies that are darker in Raleigh than they are in Seattle; something about diffraction of light possibly but my son explained it to me and he's right. Raleigh on a gray day is so gray it's dark, dreary and a sort of denial of Spring. Fall and Spring often bring these gray days when the weather just hangs low over Raleigh. It's okay, I've come to like it and appreciate it. For instance on Saturday which is my Jewish Sabbath I was in Temple staring out at the wisteria that somehow looked prettier on a gray day than on Sunday when I went over to take a picture in the bright sunshine. Wisteria like Jacaranda looks most beautiful on a gray day. I know that because I lived in LA and it's often gray early in the morning and later in the afternoon as the marine layer lays over the city for much of the day sometimes.

I have a confession to make. I've been laying low and trying to avoid the ever flowing news headlines that keep coming faster than the cold fronts sliding East across the nation. The last one was so strong it raced down through Florida and then turned into a Stationary Front hanging across the Straits of Florida. Yes, I am watching every day a bit more at the satellite imagery. And, I keep watching each new front sweep in from the Pacific slamming the NW part of this country with never ending rain, gray skies and infrequent wind or hail. Spoiler alert time flies whether you are watching it or not.

This loop and others are on Spaghetti Models.

http://spaghettimodels.com

We drove down to Miami to visit with my children who had babies over the last month or two. My daughter in Brooklyn met us in Raleigh and we drove down to Florida with her so that provided some rare quality time. In Miami and Hollywood Florida the family gathered for the Passover holiday. When I say gathered that's an understatement with my gang. I'm pretty sure there are some Native America Pow Wows that have less people and less noise. I know noise is good as it shows people are alive and kicking. Meyer kids tend to be loud, vibrant and talkative. The younger Meyer kids tend to be quieter though they are vibrant and fun. Babies cry and sleep, two year olds say "NO!" and sometimes slug someone (alive and kicking ...) and kids when they get together as adults often (but not always) revert back to who they were when they were teenagers.  Did you know Whole Foods has stopped carrying Happy Camper since they were bought by Amazon? Really pretty pathetic as I had to hunt it down at Sprouts Market in Raleigh. A few of my favorite products have been dropped from Whole Foods which is annoying but it forces you to spread your wings and spread more money around into small local stores that often get lost when competing with the larger juggernaut stores that charge more money anyway. Yes, they are really called "Happy Camper Pills" and they do give a measure of calm, energy on days when 20 or 30 family members are gathered together to memorialize tradition and history. I'm pretty sure the early Hebrews did not have them when they left Egypt and headed for the Red Sea. 

So that being said I'm going to go out and do things I need to do before heading out to Seattle to visit with my West Coast kids that I rarely get to spend any real quality time with as well...it's a long expensive flight (especially during cruise season so you got to go fast before fares go up) and using up my Southwest Miles to travel for miles to see the kids there. It's my granddaughter Bella's birthday and I want to spend it with her this year rather than watching from a far.  Then I can come back to Raleigh and settle down and settle in as the Atlantic Hurricane Season moves closer day by day whether I'm paying attention or not. Are you paying attention? It's easier to prepare now before an approaching hurricane fills up your Publix faster than you can say "oh my gosh not again!!"

https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2018-04-04-hurricane-season-forecast-atlantic-colorado-state

Yup, time waits for no man or woman or gender neutral person. Soon I'll be writing every day and discussing tropical tropics on a daily basis. I know that sounded redundant. 

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter

Ps... I hope you are happy .... I updated the blog! I updated but not proof reading!!