The Weather Outside Is Frightful

Which seems appropriate for Halloween.

This is a map of the United States issued yesterday by the Storm Prediction Center showing the greatest threat of severe thunderstorms for today (October 31).  Bear in mind that summer ended a month ago and we're supposed to have gotten the severe-thunderstorm season behind us for at least nine months.  Nope - even on Halloween, we have to worry about something spookier than ghosts and goblins.  And, dare I say it, even though my area is only in the marginal-risk zone and not the enhanced-risk zone that seems to be prepared to swallow most of Virginia, the map may have changed for the worse by the time you read this.  See what I meant when I said that October is fast replacing February as my least favorite month?

The worst of this weather should pass through overnight into Friday morning, when a cold front sweeps through and brings heavy rain and damaging winds.  Its the damaging-winds part that scares me - even in the lesser-risk zones, where there could be gusts as high as forty or fifty miles an hour.  And it could be worse along the immediate coastline - gusts approaching hurricane force.

As I type this, of course, California is dealing with wildfires that Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) thought it could avoid sparking by shutting off power in fire-prone areas of the state, a trick that failed to prevent blazes and only inconvenienced numerous homes and businesses.  The utility is fighting calls to bring it under state control while Governor Gavin Newsom can only express his disgust for PG&E's failure to upgrade its electric lines - which the utility didn't bother to do because it was interested in saving money - and its cavalier treatment of its own customers.  This is how climate change and corporate greed are intertwined, folks.

I don't know if I'll lose power for the fifty-seventh time since November 2009 as a result of these wind-driven thunderstorms - 57 outages and nothing on! - but I should be thankful that, unlike California, I know that, if I do lose it, I'll get it back soon.