Waiting Game

Looks like we are in for a wet three days. We don't expect a lot of wind from Katrina, just rain. Currently a tropical storm, we think it will be a minimal hurricane by the time it hits Southeast Florida late this afternoon. Expected to travel across the southern part of the state and into the Gulf, Katrina will probably head west northwest once she crosses the state. Worst case scenario for us is that she grows stronger in the Gulf and curves back into the peninsula at Cedar Key and hammers us, not that I think this will happen. My current hurricane preparations consisted of closing the three large market umbrellas on our patios.

I keep the current and latest NOAA weather radar on my desktop. These are the same maps and radars that the meteorologists use. Controls at the bottom the NOAA pages rock the action or loop it. You can also add the prevailing winds, isobars, and county lines. Very cool!

Atlantic Loop
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/nwatl-ir2-loop.html

Florida Peninsula Loop
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/float-ir4-loop.html

Florida and Gulf Loop
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/gmex-ir4-loop.html

Some local weather links close to home:

University of Florida Weather Station
http://www.phys.ufl.edu/weather/

University of Florida Outdoor Camera at Turlington Plaza
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/netcam/

South of us, Central Florida Weather Cameras:
http://www.wesh.com/skycams/index.html

Some hurricane facts:

In the last century, Florida has experienced 57 hurricanes. I guess that will be 58 by tomorrow.

The costliest hurricane was Andrew in 1992, which came onshore at Homestead, Florida. Andrew did 26.5 BILLION dollars of damage in 1992 dollars.

For a hurricane to form, the water temperature must be at least 80 degrees up to a depth of 150 feet. The Caribbean water temp is now actually 95 degrees.

I don't think we will need to "hunker down" through the weekend. This isn't a fierce storm so all should be well. I don't mind a little inconvenience as long as we don't lose the electricity.

Follow the paths of storms past and present.

And yes, I did serve W4D a hunk of cardboard last night as promised. I was nice though and made homemade Thousand Island dressing for him. Damned fool liked his salad.



What can I say?