The last night I was able to engage in the TC threads, it seemed clear that the hurricane was headed our way, at least in general terms. What looked at the time like a direct path has changed a good distance off to our west.
As I mentioned, I am a veteran of hurricane exposure, having been in Hurricane Donna in 1960 (with which this hurricane was compared in a Weather Underground blog) when I was six. I know that seems young enough to have forgotten it, but even then it was unforgettable. The storm crossed us in the Orlando area during the night. That frustrated my sister and I because we hoped to be able to see cows flying by, but it wasn’t to be. We lived in a neighborhood in which the houses were advertised to be constructed to cope with hurricanes, and, in fact, the house did pretty well. Even so, my younger sister and I watched as my parents stayed up most of the night mopping up water that was being blown in between the floors and the walls. No, I haven’t forgotten it.
I will say that in my wildest imagination I cannot conceive of facing 185 mph winds of a Category Five storm! It’s amazing to me that anyone could survive that.
More below.
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Though the storm is mostly off to our west, it is nonetheless stormy here. It isn’t worse than we can encounter in summer thunderstorms here, except … those, however intense, usually pass quickly, and this lingers. There has already been a death in this area, a man in Abbeville as clearing a fallen limb, when another limb fell on him and killed him. If the storm was more severe here, it is unlikely he’d have been out doing that, so in a way he might have done better if the storm was worse. Summer thunderstorms can - and DO - kill, also.
It has been astonishingly cool here for several days now! Uncommonly breezy, also. The temptation might be to think it was winds from the hurricane, but a nifty web page has shown us that it is winds being pulled TO the hurricane, from the northeast. (Do please peek at that webpage. It shows wind patterns everywhere on earth! No, I have no affiliation with that site, only learned of it from a friend, two days ago.) Last year at this time, I was within three days of leaving here to go bike touring with my sister in Washington and Oregon. Many of our training rides were in the low 90’s and upper 80’s. We were astonished at 60’s and 70’s in Washington, even colder some days. I don’t think the temperature here today climbed OUT of the 50’s! (59º right now.)
That may have helped with the low incidence of thunderstorm activity. The eastern side of hurricanes in this hemisphere is always the most dangerous, generating heavy thunderstorms and even tornadoes, on occasion. I suspect that the cool air kept thunderstorms from being more numerous. I don’t recall hearing even the first crack of thunder today.
At the top of the diary you can see a screenshot I just took of the current radar (9:10 pm EDT). The center of the shot is about where I am. The heaviest precipitation is well off to the west. There are more thunderstorms to our east, but even those aren’t traveling in any linear way, they are rotating north around the center of circulation. We could still get some thunderstorms, but everywhere the storm is weakening. Irma the storm remains, but Irma the hurricane is gone for good.
I DO believe in global warming, and I did before this storm ever dropped its first raindrop.
Thanks for reading tonight. May everyone be safe in these turbulent times! Our thoughts are with those in Florida and Georgia and the islands, where much worse consequences occurred.
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From ScottyUrb:
Jason Of Argo proposes an alternative title and cover for Hillary Clinton's new book.
[This came in just a wee bit too late for inclusion last night!]
From Wee Mama:
Two comments from Idontknowwhy’s The confessions of a misogynist:
This comment by Besame deals beautifully with "not all men", but its approach generalizes very well.
Azubia shared a personal journey of learning, so these metaphors come from the heart.
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Top Mojo for yesterday, September 10th 2017, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
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Top Pictures for yesterday, September 10th 2017. Click any image to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter!
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