Monday, August 04, 2008

hurricane

I live by Houston and there's a potential hurricane (tropical storm) on our doorstep. It probably won't be that bad, but a similarly small hurricane in 1983 knocked my family's power for a week. So I'm just letting y'all know that my internet might go out tomorrow.

It's following the same path as that 1983 hurricane that hit Houston, but that doesn't mean anything. As a lifelong Gulf Coast resident (I spent a lot of summers in Mobile, AL and Perdido Key, FL), I've been watching hurricanes my entire life, and the only thing that's certain about a hurricane is that nobody knows for sure what it's going to do.

Weather forecasters mainly rely on statistics. Hurricanes can build up or die off quickly. They can turn sharply and unexpectedly. I've even seen one come onto shore, stop, back out into the Gulf to regain strength, hit shore again, stop and build up again... and drop an insane amount of rain in the process. While large hurricanes are a hell of a lot more deadly than small ones, small ones can be full of tornadoes and downdrafts. Thankfully, I'm not in a floodplain.

Anyway, if I don't lose power, there will be another post tomorrow. To be honest, I'm looking forward to the hurricane. I love thunderstorms.

2 comments:

  1. Hope you can come up with some photos of the action Aaron, be safe!

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  2. Hope all is well. It doesn't look like it's going to be a bad one, but be safe. By the time it gets up here it should be just a good old-fashioned storm.

    Holler if you need anything.

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