Wednesday, Day 17 Since Being Home Since My Son Grounded Me ;) Florida Gov Finally Issues Shelter in Place. What Is Normal Anymore?

True Confessions Time.

Yes, I watch him every morning.

I had issues with him in the beginning.

He definitely got with the program.

He's been a calm, reasonable voice.

"No one knows for sure when this will be over"

So true.

People hate the unknown....

...people hate living in limbo.

I've been home for 17 days.

And, honestly I'm fine.

I can deal with reading and being online.

Love researching, writing, cooking.

My oldest son grounded me.

I suffer from asthma....

...I'm prone to bronchitis.

So I have to be more careful.

Otherwise.. I'm fine.

Glad my last trip was Seattle... 

It was a beautiful trip.

But now I'm home, staying in.

Doing my thing.

We all have to do what we have to do...

That's the reality of right now.

This minute, this day, this week.

As for me I'm blogging...

...blogging as in writing a long blog.

Note shortly I will talk on the tropics again.

We are 2 months until Hurricane Season.

Hate to mention that but you can't hide forever.

As I'm typing I'm multi-tasking obviously as I'm watching the Governor with the sound down turning it up here and there when he says something very compelling; his images and graphs kind of tell the story without the sound. I'm listening and trying to pay attention to a class I have on the phone with friends in Crown Heights on Chassidus and we are saying prayers for people we know who are in the hospital battling the most severe effects of Covid-19. And we are staying connected as best as we can during a time that isn't an easy time yet it's a time that as long as we have our health we can cope with not running around to all the places we are so used to running around to when living a normal life. And, yet this has become slowly normal too even though it's not a normal we wished for but we are stuck with for the time being. 

I have a friend that posted this on Facebook the other day and he's not one to post very often, but when he has something to say he always nails it. This is so true and it's something really worth thinking on while we are secluded from our normal routine to realize that my ex-husband mentioned recently that despite living in busy NYC he can suddenly hear the sounds of birds and Spring vs the sounds of traffic that drown out the beauty of the world that hear often in Raleigh.  And, yet even here in Raleigh on my quiet street I can still here some traffic off in the distance usually but not anymore. Some people like the sound of traffic but when you realize you don't hear it suddenly it somehow hits home. In Wuhan the ever present smog and pollution disappeared and blue skies were seen for the first time in no one can remember when after they shut down the area to fight the illness that has traveled around the world.

Things I've learned or remembered or thought on over the last month or so.

When Romaine Lettuce begins to go bad... you can cut the darker part off and it lasts longer.

When you cook a huge turkey breast, you can save the large bones and use them to make soup.

Old Coffee in the Coffeemaker makes great Iced Coffee once put in the fridge.

Pick up the phone and call a friend and hear her voice rather than type fighting with auto correct.*

Plan out my day carefully because time lately moves fast and when you look up it's 2 PM... 

We've thought back on our lives and remembered the good and made lists of what we'd like to fix.

I really can't wait to go to Myrtle Beach again or sit and talk with a friend at Starbucks.

The list goes on and on.

*My friend and I raised our kids while talking on the phone nonstop all day on a phone with a long cord that was 25 feet long and got caught on dining room chairs, children and toys often. Our kids got used to the fact that we were on the phone nonstop talking about "the school" or hurricanes or projects we were working on for a group called Neshei Chabad that was a Women's Organization. Somehow with all our kids and work responsibilities we were responsible for putting on all the programs in South Florida from classes, trips to visit old people in nursing homes to fundraising fashion shows in mansions on the water with backdrops you see in fashion magazines to cooking for older people who were shut in recently released from the hospital but their children who lived far away called some Rabbi on Miami Beach who called us to ask us if we could send over broth every day because they could not eat solid food yet and yes we did and to be honest looking back I'm proud of the good things we did... while talking on the telephone all day on long corded phones while raising our children. Seems I was born to multi-task. 

Don't get me wrong we were not Saints but we did good deeds and we had a lot of fun laughing at things that happened while trying to get things done as life sometimes just gets in the way in the craziest of ways when you live in Miami. We had planned a large program for the World Premier of a book just being released by an author that many wanted to read with a large meet and greet at a local Synagogue and then a smaller breakfast to discuss raising children to be held outside at a beautiful home someone always lent us by the Bay with a huge lawn to set up chairs and tables and........while arranging this.... after paying for all the things needed Channel 7 News put out a bulletin that there was an Encephalitis Alert and people should wear dark clothes and stay indoors. I think it was 1990... who remembers? We looked at each other in terror than laughed hysterically until we had tears in our eyes. What else could possibly happen next?  Spoiler alert... it was lifted before the night of the large program with 300 people attending and luckily it wasn't hurricane season; life in tropical Miami.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/fl-zika-encephalitis-outbreaks-florida-20160812-story.html

I was once sitting at the water's edge in the Florida Keys at a small motel my friend owned watching an Ibis wander through the mangroves, dangling my feet in the water and this huge old plane appeared out of nowhere flying low... very low over where I was sitting enjoying the quiet moment in nature and then I realized it wasn't a scene in some old TV show I used to watch but ... they were spraying mosquito poison everywhere the way they did when I was a little girl before they stopped spraying for mosquitoes all the time because they found out it wasn't much healthier for humans than it was for the mosquitoes that seemed immune to it anyway. When the cars were not covered in mosquito spray with ingredients now outlawed from use they were covered in gritty red African Dust aka SAL and no the Chamber of Commerce in Miami never advertised that when Jackie Gleason said Miami was the Greatest Place on Earth. Life went on..

But we haven't seen anything like this in many moons and generally only seen in the movies. Jim Williams was talking the other day on how similar this is to the movie Contagion. Many online have mentioned that and wondered how that could be. It's easy in that whether you realize it or not people are always and forever researching how to battle Germ Warfare or the accidental release of a germ that is being studied into the general population that is prone to mutating. Really I took two different classes in college on Germ Warfare for my degree in International Relations; one was a compare and contrast on the reality of that occurring vs the release of nuclear materials or a nuclear accident and the other class was in description of the most deadly designed viruses and how it would impact the public both financially and politically. Expanding on that last class the most dangerous was one that would impact the lungs and attack older people thereby taking out the structure and fabric of society both economically and more so politically. Basic classes for people in various fields of study such as International Relations. Haven't seen the movie, it's on my short to do list though my husband did a while back when I was out of town as normally I hate scary movies but this is one I do want to watch.

So my friend who was going shopping anyway bought some groceries for me carefully... brought it here leaving it outside. I watched as she sprayed all the paper bags with disinfectant and we talked from a distance me inside her way outside wearing her mask and gloves and it was good to see her and as she left she said "can't wait for us to be able to just go out to Starbucks and sit and talk" and yeah that would be normal and nice. Then I put the stuff out onto the balcony as it's cool today and tonight, carefully washed down a few products to put away for Passover and there's some lettuce drying on the counter on a towel for my husband's salad. I'm pretty sure I got all the soap off the various produce. Hmnnn Is this normal?

My friend in the hospital went home last night, actually I was friends with her mother and my aunt but now I follow her on Instagram account Busy in Brooklyn where she shares incredible recipes. My friend Devorah Leah who lives in Crown Heights who usually teaches our phone class is still in the hospital but said to be stronger today and hopefully she will be home for Shabbos before Friday Night. Then my daughter sent a message that our friend Yudi's mother in Crown Heights was taken to the hospital and the list goes on. I spoke to my best friend at 2 PM or 2:45 after I got done disinfecting everything and taking a shower and we talked on life and compared notes and well no more long 25 foot cords but still laughing and talking and being honest with each other and that's good.

So from my house to yours... I wish you bananas and strawberry jam and apples and candy and that you and your loved ones live through this and we all get back to sitting at Starbucks talking on life and complaining we don't like the new straws :)

Wednesday, April 1st. 60 days until the hurricane season and I will talk on that soon as I have much to say but I don't want to yell "FIRE!" in a crowded theater which I do feel like talking on how bad the hurricane season could be. Hopefully, by then the curve will have flattened and medication will be found that is 100% effective and we can find a vaccine and we can all get back to hugging and going to parties and sitting at Starbucks taking pictures of our favorite new drink.

Sweet Tropical Dreams,

BobbiStorm 

@bobbistorm on Twitter and Instagram

Ps... Life does go on, it evolves... what's normal changes and then something else become normal. Having to talk holding a phone with a cord (even a 25 foot cord...) kind of tied you down. Then we were online on AOL and we never left the computer because you couldn't take the IM with you. Then we were able to talk on Text Messages so we were able to go to the store and have a more normal life and then.......our phones became our computers and then ...well you get the idea. What is normal changes often but still here typing, writing, thinking out loud and talking to my friends here, there and everywhere.

Good old movie... watched it on TV when I was little on one of those channels that showed old movies over and over and I bet it was great on Broadway. But we can stay home and watch old movies and songs and scenes and plays online while hiding from the world while staying home and staying safe. 

Back from Miami... Watching Weather, Earthquakes, History and Touching Base with BobbiStorm - 1111 Lincoln Road, Florence 2006.. A Look Back and a Look Forward.

I've been following weather only here and there was time permits while on vacation in Miami. I refuse to obsess about the slight possibility of any sort of frozen preceipt in North Carolina until next winter; if we get snow it will surprise me and I'll be silly and over the top excited. Watching models this past winter, after the surprise snow in November, has been like watching Lucy promise not to pull the football away from Charlie Brown and then she does it over and over again.


I'm more than halfway to the Hurricane Season and thinking of posts to write that would offer some historic and educational value here as we march into March of 2019. You can see the signs online that we are more there in our minds than the pages of the calendar are that are stuck on February 2019.

Nothing makes my heart race faster than...

..purple satellite images of the tropics.

https://www.instagram.com/dabuhsurf/

Yes I was hiding from the world in Miami Beach.

Standing on rooftops staring out at the lights below.

Wearing long sleeves because it was cold that night.

High on life and too many Nespressos.

https://1111lincolnrd.com/

My son's best friend's father helped design it.

You've seen it on the credits of Burn Notice.

It's next store and upstairs from Nespresso :)

And yes someone lives on the top of it ...

...it's true. My son explained it to me.

I believed him but here's the link...

There's a tropical palace on top of an iconic parking lot.

They paved paradise and built another paradise.

But from the street level....

...who would know what's on the top of the parking lot?

Miami is like that, always evolving.

Always rediscovering itself.

Always redefining itself.

Magical city indeed.

How it looks from down below.

There are secrets everywhere there.

And in life as well.

They paved paradise indeed...

..and put up a parking lot with a hidden mansion on top!

I'm home, back from my Myami vacation (that's how natives like to say it...though my Grandma Mary used to call it "MY-AM-MAH" with a deep Southern drawl that she called a real "FLAHR-da accent" and yes there was something awesome about my Grandma Mary... no one like her really. I found out on Ancestry that she was actually six years older than she told everyone and I'm not even sure she knew that as there was a lot of fussing with birthdates in her family. Shows you what a cute, short, youthful looking woman can get away with over time.... six years... but it explains some discrepancies in her stories she told often that seemed not to make total sense. For instance she told me once she walked in a parade in "Tampeh" (that's how she called it) with her father when she was little and he held her hand so tightly so she didn't get lost as there were so many people there celebrating the end of the Spanish American War. I asked her if she was sure about that because she told me she was born in 1900 and that's really young for her to be walking in 1898! She thought on it and said maybe it was some other parade but I always wondered on that. There was a rumor going around once she was born in 1898 but even then you can't walk in a parade when you are five or six months old...  But at five or six you would go to a parade with your father. See my point? The devil IS in the details. She was born when her mother was going on 40, my mother was born when she was also older... I had my last child when I was going on 40. Patterns exist in families. I do not lie about my age but I could get away with it if I wanted to...

This is an off the topic post tonight and I'll resume posts regularly soon, but if you haven't noticed there isn't anything tropical going on right now. I was looking back at some old posts from years gone by when I used to sit up obviously at night refusing to go to sleep and apparently writing in my sleep the oddest posts and people read them it seems. Confessions of a storm tracker out of her mind a times. Looking longingly for some wave that would spin and catch the attention of the men at the NHC who might write a real discussion and that would come close enough to flirt with Miami but not do any real damage. That is the dream you know of all Miami kids.... the thills, the flirting and the excitement but no roof tiles should fly off anyone's roof and no papaya trees lost to the storm and only some minor palm trees swaying and work cancelled so you can go to the beach and watch the waves.

2006.... the year Ernesto came flirting (and sent kickass roses I may add to the library) and Florence confounding the NHC as to why it wasn't doing what they thought it should be doing. What is in a name afterall? That name is now retired, gone with the tropical wind and that ship won't be sailing again in the Atlantic Basin.

http://hurricaneharbor.blogspot.com/2006/09/?m=0

What amazes me is that I wrote like that and no I was not high on any substance other than a love of hurricanes and obviously some of my closest friends who also love weather. More diary than blog except for when something was really going on in the weather world. Lots of menus and music and musing on going to Key West which I did regularly back then when I needed a more tropical place than Miami.  Oh what a time it was...

Apparently there was an earthquake in September of 2006 in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa (Tam-peh) and it's not that I didn't believe my blog but I Googled it just to be sure. How bout that, talk about a geological event disappearing in the tropical breeze.

Wonder what Dutchsinse would say on that one?

There was Florence in the Atlantic kind of...

...trying to find herself.

Confounding the forecasters.

Not much has changed huh?

Well the name has been retired.

Miami is a unique place.

Diverse and deceptive at times.

Raise the buildings.

Make a parking lot into public space.

And this weekend is the craziest weekend of the year.

The Boat Show meets the Coconut Grove Art Festival.

Miami in February is often an illusion.

And illusions sell.

So do the movies.

And if you are going to film in Miami...

...do it in February.

As for me I'm back in Carolina.

Debating what to do this week...

Wondering on the weekend.

It's the OSCARS in LA.

Far away but maybe I'll wear my Oscar necklace.

It's a real golden copy of an Oscar.

An Oscar charm!

My mother hated it.

She asked me if I had a St. Peter around my neck :(

I showed her it was a mini Oscar.

My ex husband got it for me in a jewelry store in Beverly Hills.

And then the next day they stopped selling them.

Apparently it's against the law to make a graven image of Oscar!

Even in 14K gold.

Beverly Hills was fun.

But it's not as beautiful as Miami Beach or Coral Gables.

Trees are budding in Carolina.

A few even have some flowers showing.

After this week of endless rain....

... maybe more will bud when the sun comes out.

It's quiet in February of 2019.

Looks like there's a party in Rio.

Sometimes I wish I could be as silly as I was in 2006.

I changed jobs that year.

I was probably out of my mind with fear.

I decided to take a job for Touro University.

On Miami Beach... paid to be on Miami Beach.

It changed my world in ways.

Change can be good.

It's good to stay fresh and be inspired.

So yes I went to my Tara.

I'll be back sooner rather than later.

Girls get married.

Babies are born.

Life goes on...

It's good to love where you live.

Nowhere is Key West.

Nowhere is Seattle.

There is a huge world in between.

I hope your world spins on the right axis.

And those you love make you smile and laugh.

And at the end of the day.

You say Amen and let's do it again!

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter and Instagram

And everywhere else in between.

What's your dream?

What's your fantasy?

What would you like to create?

What a creation....

... 

Tuesday Tropical Discussion. Jim Williams Hurricane City 2018 Predictions. GOM Low Lowered Odds & Long Term Watching Caribbean. Will the Mid Atlantic See Hurricanes This Year? Probably. Derecho Warnings and Discussion. Confessions From the Tropically Inspired Mind.

Magic circle down to yellow.

That's the 5 day image.

A look below shows more detail.

www.spaghettimodels.com

Note the moisture off the FL East Coast.

Yet still moisture down below.

Moist, tropical flow.

May in Florida.

Check out that radar off the FL East Coast.

But also note the "low" is not going anywhere.

Watch the loop below.

The Gulf of Mexico Low lolllygags around as if it's doing a vacation off the Redneck Riviera. That's not a slight but a geographic term denoting it's "almost like the Riviera if your from Arkansas and Missouri" and that's because people up in those regions drive on down to the coast and that coast is in fact the beautiful beaches of the Florida Panhandle. This time of year you get a little rain when you be vacationing down that way. The word lollygag is indeed a word and that's simplistically speaking what this little Low is doing. I could say it's "phasing" or doing a "cyclonic loop" but I'll just say it's not going anywhere, anytime soon. Neither is the rain in the Southeast as it's as green as a putting green in that loop above. 

The loop below shows the dry air that came in from the West seriously impacting the development of the low in the Gulf of Mexico. It's still there and will be for days so needs monitoring and that is why there is a yellow circle up on the map on the main page at the NHC's website.

The main purpose for tropical systems this time of year is that the rain provides the moisture for farms to grow and produce huge amounts of produce as crops have been planted and trust me they need the rain. It gets expensive to have to water crops continually on small farms and America still has quite a few small farms especially in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and the Carolinas; not to forget Florida itself is a huge Ag producer. The produce that comes from those areas such as squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, green beans to name a few not to forget Vidalia Onions, peanuts and later in the season some of the tastiest watermelons you have ever had on a hot day in July. Growing produce is a long term project and it begins with rain after the crops have been planted. More than half of the rain that farms in these regions get is from slow moving, weak, tropical systems that are doing more than juicing up the atmosphere. 

Again because this particular little low is lollygagging about in the NW Gulf of Mexico it needs to be monitored for any sudden development. One of the biggest problems that beaches such as Destin have to deal with is close in, home grown development that doesn't give more than 12 to 36 hours if the conditions become perfect for development and some suspect low is still lurking about like a shark waiting to make a grab for some fresh meat. 

Speaking of beaches one of the reasons people in Tennessee load up the truck and drive on out to the coast is also a matter of location. In that region people drive East vs South and I like to think of the North Carolina Beaches as being coastal Tennessee. If you live here long enough you get that. The beaches of the Carolinas in May are one of the most beautiful places you can be on a hot day or any day for that matter. The sun is warm, the breeze is cool and the air has this fresh feel to it as sea oats bend to the bend and children of all ages sit by the water watching people appreciate one of the true rights of Spring. In the winter these beaches are cold though beautiful, but come May the air warms up while the water stays cool and it's more refreshing than you can imagine. 

Myrtle Beach specifically is like a lazy day in the fresh air and sunshine. Men fish in the surf (something you rarely see in Miami) and children dig in the sand as older people walk around stooped over lollygagging about it seems but what they are really doing is trying to discern shark teeth from bits and pieces of shells at the edge of the water. Also when the water is calmer it's a wading beach where you can wade out quite far allowing you to see down into the sand to find conch shells that were carried North from the Gulf Stream or the treasured shark teeth Myrtle Beach is so all about. Further North up near Wilmington the surf gets stronger and surfers wait for that perfect wave. Up near the Outer Banks the water is rarely calm and the air always blows cool and fresh even on the hottest day. May in Miami is all about thunderstorms and monsoons and the early morning temperature rises daily until one day you realize it's 80 degrees and it's 8 AM and the summer is back in your face.

The reason I am waxing poetic today on beaches, geography and demography is that we are currently in a wait and see mode where we watch the satellite loops with one eye and the model loops with the other eye. By the way that is what people do most of the day at the NHC and the NWS in any given city as they sit with huge multiple monitors in front of them watching all the possibilities that may evolve to give you a heads up and early warning to prepare for bad weather on the way. 

Yes that's the color of the sky.

Good video in the link below:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang

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

A derecho is a fast moving cluster of storms that travel far distances slamming into many cities in their path with torrential rains and pounding winds. There was an especially strong derecho along the Mid Atlantic yesterday while people were wondering on hurricane season and what to do for Memorial Day Weekend. I'm putting up a list below to show you many of these events. I'd call your attention to the years when May and June brought nasty weather up to the Mid Atlantic and temperatures soared to summertime levels early in the year. It's pretty rare for May and yet the Mid Atlantic has been really hot and so has the water off shore. Again as I said up above the Southeast stays swampy hot and our days are filled with rainy possibilities for the next week or so. 

This is the process ....

... as we move closer into June 1st.

2018 Hurricane Season.

Rarely see that graphic above.

Look at that amber necklace draped across the SE.

I draw your attention to some great sites on a wonderful weather page coming out of Tampa that Mike highlights often on Spaghetti Models. Check out that river of orange that runs along the Gulf Stream off the South East coast running up towards the Mid Atlantic and New England. Those warm water temperatures are something to stop and think about a bit.

And never take your eyes off the Caribbean.

Deep down there something is also lurking about.

Models spit out various solutions.

I like to watch and wait.

I watch the models.

I wait to see the storm develop.

You get what you see .... 

...models just show possibilities.

And lastly today I want to tie this mornings #longread blog together by explaining that weather on the day to day gets you to where Climatology lives. It takes a while for the right winds to set up, the shear to lessen and the water temperatures to begin to boil. And, it's all about geography when dealing with meteorology. You have to really understand geography along with oceanography to really understand meteorology otherwise you're just being a computer model cowboy looking to better enhance your website's delivery of tropical models that may or may not be right or wrong. Modeling is wonderful whether you are building a 1965 Mustang Convertible or assembling a beautiful modeling package of clearly displayed isobars that allow you to better discern what the models are actually showing you. Actually the models imply and suggest and they are still left up to our own interpretation. Why did the system in the Eastern GOM not develop? Because dry air wrapped in on the left side and cut off the moisture supply from down below, however the moisture trying to stay alive snuck over to the Eastern side of the Florida peninsula where deluges of rain delivered the May Monsoons right on time over my son's house in Walnut Creek and my other son's apartment in Aventura while he watched the golf course out his window flood and the palm trees bend. 

As the Mid Atlantic heats up and the water begins to be warmer than it should be this time of year we need to look forward to what that may mean deeper into the 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Jim Williams released his report while I was driving back from Charleston where we ended up having dinner but that's another story for another day. I wait patiently for Jim to put out his report as few people put as much energy into getting a report out with details that show us where a hurricane might make landfall vs shooting out random numbers as to how many might form. It's not about how many might form it's about where they might go.... duh. Otherwise it's useless information that looks good on paper but not worth the paper it's not even printed on anymore. Number projections are especially useless during in any given year as some years the NHC gives designation status with the coveted name to what in other years would be no name storms that create problems but did not get watches and warnings and a name. We used to call those systems "no name storms" but lately the NHC has rarely seen a close in system that it didn't feel it needed to give a name to out of an abundance of caution. That's not necessarily bad may I add, however it skews the numbers game so feel free to shoot out your 13-7-4 predictions (13 named systems, 7 hurricanes and 4 major hurricanes) vs 15-8-3 that someone else might predict. Message Boards (yes they still exist) are filled with such odds predictions this time of year. But Jim .... spends much time analyzing the possibilities and the various elements that contribute to one sort of hurricane season vs another. Few people know Hurricane History as well as Jim does and he understands the elements as anyone who went to school and got their degree do and his track record is may I add often better than the GFS model that they still can't get right no matter how much the computer, meteorologists tinker with it. 

www.hurricanecity.com

http://hurricanecity.com/blogs/2018/05/2018-landfall-predictions-for-hurricanes-and-tropical-storms/

What I want you to take away from today's #longread blog that saved my sanity and helped me collect my thoughts is that storms like people go where it is convenient to go. People in Arkansas drive South for Panama City to the Florida Panhandle Beaches. Storms that form in the Caribbean or Eastern Gulf of Mexico in May and June tend to head North to those same beaches. And, when it's hot in Maryland people head to Ocean City to catch the beach breeze and when the water off the East Coast is hotter than normal hurricanes that get far enough west as they trace their way around the Bermuda High will often impact those same Mid Atlantic Beaches going all the way up to Portland Maine. Years when derechos form in May and attack the East Coast out of seemingly nowhere are also years when I believe hurricanes can impact those same coastal regions. And, those same years bring storms cruising by or treading the Outer Banks beaches when the water is warm close in and the Bermuda High locks into place.

Jim's map for 2018 is shown below. I will talk more on Jim's predictions in future blogs but I suggest you read and reread his report and sit and think a spell on all that information to get a better handle on which beaches hurricanes may travel to this coming Hurricane Season. His map from last year looked like a road maps made for Irma and Harvey and Maria to name a few. 

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter

Ps. I have a brother who is a writer among other things he does creatively speaking and he complained to me a while back that I don't know how to write to my audience on my blog. He's wrong because I know exactly who I am writing for and why I am writing. This blog was started because Jim was about to pull the plug on the message board he hosts because well it was that time of year when people get testy waiting for a westbound wave to finally wrap into a Cape Verde Hurricane and I needed a place to go to just write whatever I wanted and not be told whether it would or would not happen. I wanted to write a diary of sorts filled with tropical information. It used to be a very long read without pictures or songs or loops or any real heavy tropical discussion but filled with cryptic stories that hopefully no one except the usual suspects involved know what the heck I'm talking about. I do owe a few people apologies for some posts back in 2006 and 2007 but they probably deserved what I said and I probably made a meager apology either online or on the phone. Smiling as I type this because oh we were crazy back then or as my daughter who often made dinner while I sat typing online would say Mommy's Cray Cray which is better than my other daughter who used to call me Psycho Mommy. I have great kids. I have great friends and I wouldn't do it over again. I didn't start this blog to become rich or famous or to impress my friends in meteorology school or use it as a resume to try and get a good job at the NHC. I have used it as a resume of sorts for jobs speaking, writing and editing as I do here and there. I have never written that Great American Novel but it's probably just as well as there is a beauty in anonymity. I've never really wanted to be on the cover of the National Enquirer and yet I was on the cover of the Washington Post so go figure. Life is strange. It's not often what you worry on that gets you as much as what's gaining on you in the rear view mirror. Check out the NWS site is you live in the dark green area as the day progresses today.

https://www.weather.gov

And you... (yes YOU) may want to reread Jim Williams 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Report on cities most likely to be impacted by hurricane. There are more details to that statement as Jim is rich in details always and he'd probably criticize me for how I described his report but it's okay I'm used to it ;) If you want to check out my brother's book of musing and rambling poetic thoughts the link is down below. He and Jim are both born in the same year and are Rabbits according to Chinese Astrology ;) 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1980911312

This blog sometimes saves my mind and that's good. Somehow yesterday I ended up in some of the worst traffic I have ever seen on a highway that's supposed to be an evacuation route out of Charleston when a Hurricane is on the way. Good thing that cable didn't snap in September. I had a great day, didn't get to see a close friend but we did get to listen to the same press conference live at the same time. Charleston is wonderful, beautiful and not as hot as it will be later in the summer. Myrtle Beach is always wonderful. Margaritaville in Myrtle Beach is one of Jimmy Buffet's best locations and you can sip a drink and watch the other Jim warn you of Hurricane Myrtle. Thanks for reading today's very long blog post. Keep watching the Caribbean, something wicked from that direction may spin up in the near future while you are watching the Eastern Gulf of Mexico for development. 

https://www.postandcourier.com/news/broken-cable-in-wando-river-bridge-closes-westbound-i-/article_065d1ee2-57a5-11e8-8872-bf3b0a4681cd.html

Besos BobbiStorm 

@bobbistorm on Twitter for short, fast breaking information. I'll keep the blog more concise and shorter once we really have something tropical to talk about...