August You Must Prepare, Watch, Get Ready.... Long Range Models Show Development ... You've Got Time. Use it Wisely! Hurricane History ... A Look at George Winterling the Jacksonville Weatherman & Hurricane Dora
There's the rest of the basin.
It's not easy writing about the tropics when the tropics are so quiet there's not much to say I haven't said, but when you're friends with Dabuh you are never bored tropically or otherwise. Dabuh lives in the Jacksonville area commonly known as Jax. He does surfing and will remind people his site is primarily a Surf Site but he covers the weather and many who have never gotten on a surfboard follow him carefully throughout the Hurricane Season hanging on his every word and every song he uses to sometimes drop hints about possible development or swells/waves that may be coming down the tropical road.
This morning he tweeted this tweet above and as I was half asleep it took me a minute, because I knew Winterling was not the last name of Dr. George the iconic weatherman at KTLA in LA. As the coffee kicked in I realized I better Google this and am I glad I did. Apparently George Winterling was to Jax what Bryan Norcross is to Miami and most of South Florida. George Winterling was the only meteorologist that said Hurricane Dora was going to make landfall in the Jacksonville area early on, an area that many believe is protected from landfalling hurricanes and usually locals trust they can just wave as hurricanes swim by off coast. Miami gets hurricanes, New Orleans gets hurricanes that's what people think but Jacksonville rarely gets a direct hit but it did in 1964. And many have slid along doing damage and flooding areas the way Hurricane Matthew did!
As I'm going to keep this on the topic of George Winterling, suffice it to say there was a lot of controversy about the odd track of Hurriane Dora and many accused Project Storm Fury program for having the oddball track that rarely ever happens. You can Google Project Storm Fury and the controversy, but this post is about a local weather person who made a huge difference in the lives of the locals that trusted him after insisting Dora would, could hit the Jax area! And, THAT is what makes all the difference, when you have a local met who isn't afraid to step outside the regular discussion that is often based (especially nowdays) on local NWS forecast discussion, or in this case the NHC discussion.
Bryan Norcross, in Miami, was the ONLY meteorologist on air on Friday afternoon when people were making weekend plans to leave the door wide open for a possible hit to South Florida rather than paraphrase the discussion that Andrew was going to be moving away from South Florida and would make landfall further up the SE coast. Most hurricanes that roll off of Africa as tropical waves are watched carefully as the vigorous tropical wave moves steadily West then WNW and looks to come up over the Islands aiming it's now strong Hurricane fury at the city of Miami. Few mets will go against the grain and mention there might be another possibility and walk out onto that ledge as Bryan Norcross did in 1992 in Miami as apparently George Winterling did in 1964 in Jax.
Years back before people all over the place follow weather people online who live in far away cities, because over time they have been very reliable....years back there was the Nightly News and families gathered around the TV the way their parents gathered around the radio and listened to see what Bob Weaver said, or Bryan thinks (in Miami he was like Cher and Beyonce, just one name... Bryan after Andrew) and up in Jax people trusted George Weatherline.
Nice to have that sort of trust and relationship with people that you trust over time. I'm like that online as I have a lot of history here in the weather community and I have long time friends, followers and people who I follow almost religously during the hurricane season. Not people who have the same religion or the same politics or any other influence other than WEATHER and a knowledge of geography, meteorology and sometimes even geology and who are way more right than they are wrong.
www.spaghettimodels.com
I'm listening to Mike talk while I type this, not to get any special info as we all use the same info but I like listening to Mike talk as we are old friends, emphasis more on been friends a long time vs being old. Smiling because the reality is that life goes on, we get wiser, we get more tired, we take chances, we study, we learn, we chase thunderstorms the way Dabuh chases waves. And we watch those tropical waves that come off of Africa and move west and then after a slight dip WSW for a few days they pull up a bit WNW and then we watch the Islands (will they go through the Islands or up and over the Islands we wonder, we worry) and with every day, every new update with every change in color from yellow to orange to red to "OH MY GOSH ITS AN INVEST" (we don't say that outloud but think it in our heads) and then it gets real designation ... a name... a name many may forget or a name that some will remember forever and ever.
Behind every big storm chaser there is a hurricane that caught them, grabbed them and held them there and they were changed forever. Once you have been through a real hurricane be it wind, flooding or the EYE you never forget it. Some hide, some are terrified and obsessively watch them on social media hoping and praying they will go somewhere else or just simply fade away. Others watch, waiting, hoping to see it happen one more time even though they know it might wreck their world they are obsessed and others chase and chasers have one thing in common...they'd rather a chase a hurricane, stand in the eye, stare up at the stars and listen to birds singing suddenly between the first part of the hurricane and the wicked, dangerous back edge of the hurricane and give thanks they have a home to go home to and either way when you live in Hurricane Country you know that one day a hurricane may find it's way to your front door. And even in Jax they know, because they had Hurricane Dora and they were grateful forever that George Winterling told the truth and warned them that it could hit Jax and that gave them time to prepare, emotionally prepare and physically do what they needed to do to get ready for Hurricane Dora.
And, that is why I am here.
Yes, I love weather and I love hurricanes the way a friend of mine would go out in thunderstorms and stand on his porch .... trying to be one with the storm....and I know that because his mother told me that :)
I listen to Mike because he's like me in many ways, an Old Florida kid who grew up with Florida Hurricanes in Tampa, where my family lived for years before Miami .... where my Great Grandparents are buried in a beautiful cemetery with hanging moss and various palm trees peppered in next to huge oak trees with previously mentioned hanging moss. But when my Great Grandfather was alive he'd sit on his porch and look out over Tampa Bay at the building thunderstorms, mesmerized waiting for them to release their fury. Weather is in the genes in my family, not sure about yours. Mike is good, Mike is wise, Mike is fun! Mike can talk more than I can and trust me I can talk a long time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCCX0foDJ9I
https://ktla.com/news/dr-george-fischbeck-my-life-in-weather/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UaiqNFKVXY Bryan Norcross
Note the type of meteorologists I'm talking about are like Franchise Quarterbacks. When you say Bryan you think WTVJ, Dr. George you think of KTLA and in Jax it was all about George Winterline at WJXT. When you think of Dan Marino it comes naturally Miami Dolphins!
5 days before Andrew.
posted by BobbiStorm @ 7:41 AM
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