They Call It Speedo . . .

. . . but its real name is Tropical Storm Earl. 

The fifth named storm of the 2016 Atlantic hurricane season is indeed a fast mover, and it also strengthened from tropical storm status to a hurricane with considerable speed.  It formed not too far from where Hurricane Sandy formed in October 2012, though it's taking a different path, striking Belize as a hurricane and now over northern Guatemala and heading  for Mexico as a tropical storm once again.

Sorry to be a downer, but this could be a taste of what's to come for the U.S. East Coast.  I suspect that the eastern seaboard will be under a greater threat as we move into peak season in late August and early September, and, as Sandy proved, even late October is conducive to a massive storm forming and affecting the coast.  Also, even as Florida has gotten a break, the Northeast has seen these storms threaten us more regularly.  Two of them  - Irene and the aforementioned Sandy - hit New Jersey and New York, while a third - Joaquin - came close.  (Alas, it spawned a nor'easter that did hit land.)  All from climate change, no doubt.

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride. :-O 

Like a Hurricane

Hurricane Earl did damage and caused flooding in North Carolina's Outer Banks and should graze southeastern New England. In the greater New York area, it's been a mixed bag. Earl has brought heavy rain to Long Island -a show at the Jones Beach amphitheater was canceled as a result - but much of the metropolitan area was spared. A tropical storm watch was actually in effect for inland northern New Jersey and a tropical storm warning was issued for the entire New Jersey coastline. I can't speak for the Jersey Shore, but in Essex County, twenty miles west of New York City, we were supposed to get showers or possibly a heavy and consistent rainfall.

We haven't gotten a single drop.

Even the wind was light. I forgot to take in some plastic lawn chairs, but it turns out I need never have bothered.

So, my mother and I were spared a sixteenth power outage for the year. Of course, on our block, the power can go out without warning on a calm, clear day.

In fact the power in my house could just as easily be out by the time you read this.

Meanwhile, Earl is going by so quickly, they call it Speedo. ;-)

Its Name Is Earl

The National Weather Service reported earlier today that Hurricane Earl is now a Category 4 hurricane and some news stories on the storm - which is on an indeterminate track toward the American East Coast - could hit anywhere between North Carolina and Maine and possibly give the New York City area a lashing reminiscent of the 1938 hurricane that famously destroyed Providence, Rhode Island. It's been that long since the Northeast has had to deal with a tropical storm of Katrina-size proportions.

This is bad enough news for those of us with the lingering bad memories of the February blizzards earlier this year, not to mention the March nor'easter that turned much of New Jersey into an inland sea. The laws of averages suggest that the greater New York area can't possibly go through the same kind of adverse weather twice in one year, but of course nor'easters and hurricanes are in fact two different kinds of storms . . . only with the same nasty effects.

Hurricane Earl is expected to be within range of the Northeast by Thursday night of Friday. A likely scenario has Earl staying out at sea and not affecting land terribly, but a hit - direct or indirect - is not out of the question just yet. Friday's forecast for the New York area, as of this writing, calls for a 40 percent chance of showers.

We're going to get hit, I know it.

The blizzards we got this past winter were originally forecast to be snow showers.