A writer and a tropical muse. A funky Lubavitcher who enjoys watching the weather, hurricanes, listening to music while enjoying life with a sense of humor and trying to make sense of it all!
Tuesday, December 03, 2019
December... Thanksgiving Over As Is the Hurricane Season of 2019. Traveling Back to the Carolinas Today...
Wondering if Mike makes a Winter Weather Tee Shirt?
Hmnnn.. may ask him.
My favorite place to go to know what's going on in the weather!
Getting quality time when I could with who I could.
Blogging from the road today.
It's December.
I bought LED Chanukah stars in Target for my window.
Going to see if they work back in Raleigh ;)
The Hurricane Season is in the Rear View Mirror.
Well on our side of the world.
It's been a while I know. I spent the last week in sunny, South Florida hanging out with my kids, family, friends and taking in all my favorite places. Today we are continuing this trek back up the coast to more of my favorite places. A new favorite place showed up on the play list last night when we met my son, daughter-in-law and the adorable Olivia and Milo in St. Augustine dining by the harbor all lit up in twinkling lights at night. Beautiful. Writing this from Jacksonville, but by the time you read it we will have gotten back on the road Northbound.
I guess I missed all the hype about the Winter Storm of early December (E name on TWC?) and pretty sure it will be really remembered as the Thanksgiving Travel Storm Mess of 2019. If you were flying somewhere along the Northern rim of the country you may have been stuck in the airport somewhere, but driving in the Southeast the highways were blue, beautiful and sunny.
Thanksgiving Weekend snow may not happen often.
But really not that rare.
The truth is a Winter Storm that impacts the Northeast and Chicago messing up travel is not that rare a thing as if it was in Tampa Florida or even Atlanta... that would be huge news. I heard Cranky is missing on Twitter, hope he finds his way back to our neck of the woods. I've been offline most of this trip just enjoying life and living in the minute. The weather in Miami was beautiful, sometimes cool at night but not blazing hot during the day and the humidity was way down. My son is moving from his apartment that makes you feel like you are in Savannah with the fountain down below up town towards Aventura and the rest of the family.
So I had a long, espresso and said goodbye to my favorite breakfast spot this year when in Florida. New favorites are nice and will pop up this coming year I'm sure. We had a tropical Thanksgiving by my In Law's pool in the backyard where the frying turkey set off the yard's fire alarm system ... the bird was fine and the sprinklers quickly shut down. The house and adjacent Bird Farm (parrots) were fine, the ground just got a bit wet which was fine and the frying turkey barely noticed the fuss.
So what else happened this weekend?
Josh got to chase a cyclone!
Much to be thankful for there.
DaBuh closed the 2019 Hurricane Season out.
Check that off the To Do List.
I'll blog on it once back in Raleigh.
The truth is it was all about Dorian.
Jim Williams wrote up an excellent report.
Note he was on the money totally this year.
All his top places he forecast would get hit...
...got hit so I'd listen to him carefully every year.
Besos BobbiStorm
@bobbistorm on Twitter and Instagram.
Seems we are good when we have winter in all the right places, sunshine in Miami and storms with awesome cores Hurricane Man to chase ... For me I'm chasing really good coffee and an awesome pecan bun for lunch today!!
Tropics Quiet Today. Storms in the South, Tornado Warnings But Not TS Barry. Back From Vacation in Crown Heights. What is Crown Heights? Why You Should Visit NY in June...and WHAT IS AN INVEST REALLY?
Officially nothing is going on in the tropics today.
Invest 91L is no more.
Despite giving it way too much of a chance.
The NHC pulled the plug.
I'm putting that picture in motion below
You can see it's remnant moisture causing problems.
I want to draw your attention to this flare up below.
This area and further to the East will flare up often today.
It's the moisture that was associated with 91L...
...mixing it up with a frontal boundary.
This was and is the real concern.
Flooding.
Torrential rains.
Tornadoes.
Too much can be a disaster.
Not enough can destroy crops.
Kind of a lesson in life on finding a balance.
We can learn much from studying meteorology.
I'm back from vacation.
It was a hectic, crazy good trip.
Not a lot of down time but found some anyway.
You gotta grab those moments while you can.
More on that later ;)
I'm going to talk tropical first.
Personal later.
Feel free to just do the weather....
...or stick around for the rest of what's on the menu.
What is an INVEST?
Please read and remember.
Thank you!
What I really want to convey here about Invest 91L is that it actually did what most areas of tropical moisture do and that is they drift along with the lower level winds towards some coastline and because either one center could not win out over the competing centers or conditions were not favorable enough they do not develop and they end up as rain over the heartland or low lands of the Carolinas and Georgia or Louisiana. That really is the way of the world. Years ago they were called "tropical disturbances" meaning there was a disturbance in the force in the tropics ... to be plain and a bit silly but very honest. Then we went through a period of naming various areas or tropical waves as an Invest and numbering them and studying them to see if they did or didn't develop. This was not exactly a clandestine thing but it was known in meteorological circles. Somewhere along the line they went public with a flurry of fantastic graphics on TWC or your local TV news and online in the meteorological community. Social media amped up the expectations tremendously. The National Hurricane Center obviously saw it as a tool to remind people it's the Hurricane Season and tropical development could come from this little piggy or that little piggy and somewhere a poor girl seemingly destined to sweep her stepmother's home could turn into Cinderella. Seriously it's that basic and I want people to understand as the season progresses an INVEST has NO CENTER, no real CIRCULATION and winds not of any tropical designation. So what does an Invest have? Rain that has lingered or sometimes it's simply an area with very little rain but model support as models (computer programs) indicated that an area of low pressure could form over such and such a place and deserve the designation of Tropical Depression, Tropical Storm or Hurricane. The problem here is that since they give it a designation of Invest with a number it is raised to real status and it is not... it's like saying wood that could have been made to build Pinocchio was actually Pinocchio from day one when in fact it was most likely going to be used to build a bench but who knows a good carpenter might have built something bigger than a bench. Not to take away from benches that give us all a place to rest...
So yes I will talk on Invests and discuss their potential for Barry or Chantal but we may go through a whole bunch of them with no name given or the next one may form from a stalled out frontal boundary in the Gulf of Mexico that may develop a center as barometric pressure lowers and winds begin to pick up and circulate enough for the National Hurricane Center to designate it a Tropical Depression or Tropical Storm. It is very possible that could happen before the month of June ends. That is what we call foreshadowing as models are doing their thing again showing an area that may be ripe for development. And again it's a good time to look at the areas of development most frequently popular in June and that is.... the Gulf of Mexico and along the SE coast. The frenzy reminds me of that scene from Fantasy Island years ago.
Compare and contrast June with October.
While the Central American Gyre is a thing.
It more frequently produces storms later in the season.
October is prime time for the CAG.
But that region does produce in June and July sometimes.
It's possible a disturbance can form and get up into the prime region.
And that is what models were indicating with Invest 91L.
Normally it would have developed in the EPAC.
The fact that it didn't and lingered over Central America.
And could not pull it together in the SW Carib...
..... was a pretty good sign it was just an Invest.
But the regime at the NHC this year seems to rely on models...
...more than other teams have and it is what it is.
Subtropical Storm Andrea didn't last as long as Invests 91L
Nuff said.
To read more on what a CAG is read the link below.
You will see how many areas are being monitored for development.
When models begin to favor one area..........
...... it may become an Invest.
An area merely being watched and investigated for development.
Find a balance again between speculation and reality.
Find sources you trust over time.
Sources you have learned to trust over time.
Keep it in perspective but pay attention.
That's it mostly for the weather part of today's blog.
The rest explains where I have been.
And is a good primer for what is Crown Heights.
A place I mention often and just got back from....
Remember his is a blog... an online diary of sorts.
When there's a hurricane out there it's ALL weather ...
....but there is no hurricane today so blogging and having fun.
On a personal level ... hi there :) I'm back from vacation in New York where we went for a wedding and to see two of my daughters and do some shopping for things you can only really get in New York. Amazon is great but it's not the same as actually walking through the Louvre and it's much more fun to wander around and pick things out .... feel some cool air on a sunny day and I gotta tell you generally there is no finer place to be than New York in June. I mean it inspired a song! You can't go wrong going to New York in June. The weather is about as good as it gets !
I was also in upstate New York and I was on the road that goes back and forth from Monsey NY across the river down through Manhattan any which way Waze takes you to get across the other river into Brooklyn because Manhattan is really an island! My other daughter lives in the Flatbush area of New York and we spent a lot of time in Boro Park and Crown Heights. As you know from reading this blog I lived in Crown Heights, I went to school in Crown Heights and it's a sort of spiritual home that nourishes me as much as the incredible food in all the new trendy restaurants does as somehow Crown Heights became trendy. It's a beautiful neighbor that finds a balance for many cultures that call it home.
Years ago it was a nice, new suburb predominately Jewish built when the subway stop on Kingston Avenue and Eastern Parkway opened up that part of what had previously been a bucolic area that fast evolved into an neighborhood of nice homes on shaded streets for young families who were moving away from the Lower East Side. Over time many Caribbean Island families moved into Crown Heights and found it also a beautiful place with nice homes, brownstones, parks and shaded streets. At some point Chabad Lubavitch moved into Crown Heights after the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe Rabbi Joseph I. Schneerson made it his home and in doing so made it World Chabad Headquarters. Time went by and as the older Jewish population died out a young vibrant Chabad community evolved as many come from all over the world to study and live there for a while before either finding a home there permanently or going out somewhere into the world to take a little bit of Crown Heights with them where ever they live and often return "home" to touch home base as I did the last few days.
Oh did I mention the Dodgers used to play in Crown Heights? You might want to do a little bit of reading up on the history of Brooklyn ...
There's a beauty and a balance to Crown Heights where tree lined streets shade your walk through neighborhoods where people grown gardens and roses bloom in June. Now days there are street fairs, parades of all kinds and a farmers market in a park. People live together in balance in this sweet space where many feel at home and recently it's even become a bit of a tourist attraction. I feel like I'm in Key West with people doing walking tours with tourists from more cultures than I can even try and list here. I even stood on a corner to see what the guy was saying but really time moves fast in a New York minute so I moved on to meet my husband for coffee and a doughnut at Gombo's Bakery. It's so trendy in Crown Heights we now have outdoor patios to eat and enjoy the food and the view. Who knew?
Showing two YouTube videos that show the different sides of Crown Heights but they both show the enjoyment people have of living there and why it's a much loved neighborhood. As y'all know I love fashion so let's start there.
Another view of Lubavitch and Crown Heights.
And some blend the two and still call it home.
It's a big world.
Embrace what you love.
Enjoy what you love.
Accept others with love.
Wasn't this trip inspirational for me?
That's it.
I'm back recuperating from too much dancing....
... too much walking (NY...) and too much food.
Walking from the wedding party venue...
...to the wedding site on Eastern Parkway at 770 in high heels.
And then back again for dancing.....
Yeah I'm resting today :)
I do love Crown Heights :) as you can tell.
Note Crown HEIGHTS has HILLS.
I'm just a bit tired today.
We got back around 1 AM ....
Catching up on what's going on in the tropics.
Resting today.
Writing long obviously.
Home in Carolina.
Not expecting much to develop in the next few days.
So enjoy the long blog if you read the whole thing.
And I'm home loving the posts of my friends.
Catching up.
Is Mike back from his cruise?
Wonder if either of us got any rest.
Most of us know nothing is happening for a while.
So we take our trips in early June.
June too soon for hurricanes..........
.........but usually a good time for a vacation!
Another best friend is in Myrtle Beach this week...
Ps. To be honest yes we love Eastern Parkway so much we take wedding pictures there and film CD covers there as well. Okay my son helped make this video and he's hidden in there in a few places and it's one of my favorites so you get the idea... the feel.... the beauty and joy of what it is for me to be there, wander through the Jewish Bookstore, pray at 770 the synagogue, buy my best friend a few presents which I must remember to send out tomorrow and .... be totally exhausted from a huge wedding that went on for hours with much dancing, song, food, music and happy memories. Make your own memories, June is running out... go enjoy New York in June.
Location: Miami, Raleigh, Crown Heights, Florida, United States
Weather Historian. Studied meteorology and geography at FIU. Been quoted in Wall Street Journal, Washington Post & everywhere else... Lecturer, stormchaser, writer, dancer. If it's tropical it's topical ... covering the weather & musing on life. Follow me on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/#!/BobbiStorm
