2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season Running Thread

Let’s hope Ian picks up speed by the time he reaches South Carolina. Anymore, Charleston and Columbia flood on the suggestion of cloud cover.

(Also, how many years until we have the first non-binary hurricane?)

 

Hurricane Pat.

 

Here's some data I came across that is interesting if you have ties to the Old North State. (Probably not, if you don't).
Monthly number of recorded storms affecting North Carolina:
1950-1979 - June 7 July 5 Aug. 18 Sept. 32 Oct. 13 Nov. 0
1980-1999 - June 5 July 9 Aug. 16 Sept. 20 Oct. 13 Nov. 5
2000-Present - June 4 July 12 Aug. 14 Sept. 26, Oct. 7 Nov. 3

 

The Great American Bald Ego gets hit by a tree branch while playing in the rain

Watch: The Weather Channel reporter, Jim Cantore, hit by branch during Hurricane Ian coverage - CNN Video

 

Many years ago, I was sitting in the parlor of a small Charleston single house* owned by one of my wife's architect friends. We were all doing the in-your-30s-Sunday-after-a-party-brunch, and it had rained pretty heavily that morning. The discussion, with many, many participants, had to do with just how elegant Charleston really is ... as the reek of sewage (from the flooding) lay heavily over the room.

I kept my damn mouth shut.


*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charleston_single_house

 

Thoughts and prayers.

 

The word I got sick of hearing during my 2.5 years working there was "charming."

 

Sanibel being cut off from the mainland seems like a plot point in a Randy Wayne White novel.

 

Next stop, Charleston.



And then Charlotte, two of my three previous work stops. Somehow it missed Fort Lauderdale.

 

One of the interesting things about taking both California History and Florida History in college was the similarity in how the influx of people to warmer climates, cheaper land (at one time) and in Florida's case, no income tax, since World War II isn't without the inherent risk of a catastrophic natural disaster.

Just like the Bay Area and the Southland are overdue for a large seismic event, Miami and the St. Pete-Tampa area have been very lucky to have avoided a major hurricane for quite some time.

On average, a major hurricane strikes Florida every 11 years. And yet, Florida's Bay Area is pushing around 100 years since a direct hit, and it's been 1950 since Fort Lauderdale-Miami caught one in the kisser. (Hurricane Andrew caused widespread damage, but hit south of the most populated area.)

Ian pretty much decimated the same area as Charley did in 2004. But that's 18 years of more and more people moving to that area without having experienced an event like this week. With something like 1,500 people a day moving into the state, I hope Ian is a wake-up call to the people from other places who don't understand how dangerous and life-threatening these can be. The area between West Palm and Key West got hit with eight Cat 3s or larger in a 25-year span between 1925 and 1950. So it's not just a global warming event.

Hurricanes are Mother Nature's way of sorting out the true Floridians from the people who suddenly realize they can't afford to lose everything.

Just like California, Florida wasn't meant to have a population of over 20 million people, with 90 percent of those living within 10 miles of a coastline (or in Orlando's case, an amusement park).

 

Looking at the damage to the causeway in Sanibel, I'm reminded of what the earthquake did to the Bay Bridge in 1989.