PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Hurricane Irma

Best wishes and good luck to all those affected.

Peter

PeterF, what do you get in Australia? Would they call them cyclones down there?

most recent storm path puts Tommy Adams and Floyd Jane directly in the crosshairs. Please check in later to let us know you're OK... Likewise anybody else whose lives are impacted by Irma.

My 93 year old mother and 70 year old sister live alone together just north of Tampa in Hudson.

Friday morning my sister's son flew into Tampa to ride out the storm with them. But then decided to keep the rental car and drive up to a family house in North Carolina. Last report all were tucked away high and dry.

Yes we get cyclones - last one to hit was Cyclone Debbie in March. It was a category 5 and hit the Whitsunday Islands in Queensland.

Out of curiosity I looked up the differences if any and hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons are all the same, they just use different names in different parts of the world.

Bob

They spin CCW north of the equator and CW south.

Again best to our Florida friends. We are forecast for 40-60 mph gusts in middle Ga but nothing compared to what you folks are facing. Mega positive thoughts to you.

J&B

I live in Pinellas county (the little finger by Tampa) but we evacuated to Tallahassee.

Yes, my undstanding is, as you say, they are similar but called differenct names dependent on where they occur geographically.
Hurricanes in the Americas, monsoons in Asia, and cyclones in tropical Australia & the South Pacific.

Looks like Irma doesn't have us in the cross-hairs anymore.

We've been getting wind and rain since yesterday afternoon, it's a huge storm, but unless she changes her mind, we are spared the worst of it here.

They are predicting hurricane force winds of Cat 1 strength around here, and we've weathered worse than that.

We still have power and at times Internet the goes out, but we're doing well.

Now my heart goes out to those on the west coast of our state, especially the Tampa Bay area. There are a lot of homes on low ground around there.

Irma seems to be a wet storm - at least the part we're getting (lots of horizontal rain) and the water produces the longest lasting damage.

I think it's time for everyone to take climate change very seriously.

Good luck to all in her path.

Notes

Climate change? This has nothing to do with that.

It's like I tell my daughters, when they say this is the worst storm SINCE...then it's nothing new. Just a few minutes ago the news listed the Cat 4 and 5 storms that have hit Florida since 1850.

This is such a complex thing. I'm hardly a denier it's just that so many sources have an obvious bias one way or the other. I try to find sources that seem to be unbiased like this one:

https://www.livescience.com/9349-increase-major-hurricanes-linked-warmer-seas.html

They go into it in pretty good detail. There are parts of this that both sides can point to and say "See, I told you so". I find it interesting that after Katrina the climate alarmists all told us that this was just the beginning then we go 12 years without a single hurricane hitting the US. That at least allowed New Orleans to finish their protective barriers.

Bob

I remember monsoon season from Vietnam. 40 straight hours of deafening rain, then 3 days of 100 degree, humid days. Then 40 more hours of rain. And 4 days of hot and humid to soak the water back up into the clouds. Then, yep. 40 more hours of rain. What we DIDN'T see was 185 mph winds! And there was nothing even resembling a sewer system so the who base camp had boardwalks that were 18 to 20 inches high so we had somewhere to walk to work. Trucks could move, but jeeps were too low to handle the water. The snorkel air intake was fine but the body was not built like a boat hull. LOL!

Chulaivet was there too and I am sure remembers monsoons.

Hey Bob, I'm confused about your comment regarding hurricanes not hitting US during the last 12 years. Start with Matthew (2016) and go back. Matthew is well remembered by those of us in the SE. Move to Sandy that killed 116 and caused $70 billion in damage in 2012. Then step back to Irene that caused $16 billion damage in 2011. And there are more. I'm sure the millions having their lives changed by Irma aren't interested in the etiology of bigger storms but Irma is IMO more part of a progression than an outlier...this also the first year in recorded history that the US has been hit with two cat 4's within the same year.

Bud (aka weather geek)

Well, the 12 years is referring to major hurricanes because that's what all the climate talk is about. Huge, major Cat 5's that are going to completely destroy everything. Florida is rendered uninhabitable and so is the Gulf.

Sandy and Irene were not major hurricanes. Matthew certainly was but not by the time it got to the US and it wasn't a direct hit either, it stayed offshore. Irene was a Cat 1 and Sandy wasn't a hurricane at all which is why it was named Superstorm Sandy. It was threatening to be a hurricane but it never developed an eye then it merged with a nor'easter storm. That was a real fluke, a few days timing one way or the other and it would have been just another rain squall. I know, to the people who suffered who cares, right?

The other thing is when people quote damage in dollars implying this storm was worse than that storm, the damage numbers keeps going up and up because of all the development along the coasts. What does your area look like now compared to 20 years ago? When you're talking about media coverage of what all too often is unwarranted climate change hysteria it's important to understand those details.

Still I agree all the scientists say the oceans have warmed a half degree and that helps to fuel hurricanes. But, then you read about some of the most powerful storms around the world over the last 75-100 years that happened in years where the oceans actually cooled.

Regardless of what all this means I really feel strongly about one thing. China, India, Russia, Asia, Mexico, Central and South America, the Middle East and the rest of the crap third world are such horrible polluters that we could completely bankrupt this country and lower our greenhouse emissions to virtually zero and it would not make one bit of difference. China negotiated a 20 year "catch up" period before they have to start with serious greenhouse restrictions. And after 20 years, those who believe they will actually do it please raise your hands. I have such a deal for you, it's gonna truly make you rich...

Notes once you get back to this thread, I sincerely hope you and your family are ok. This little diversion is just that, the important thing is you two made it through this.

Bob

floyd made it through in good order.

J&B

Um, Bob...

"In 2014, the top carbon dioxide (CO2) emitters were China, the United States, the European Union, India, the Russian Federation, and Japan."

Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data

Both floyd and Tom good. Both were in direct path. Best to all others!

This is great news!

good news, and thanks to you for taking the initiative to call them and relay the news about their safety to the rest of us!

China, India, Russia. That's basically what I wrote isn't it? And you're going to trust China and Russia especially to live up to their promises? I'm not saying there isn't a potential problem, my comment is about the pretty useless proposed solutions and the fact that so far there's little evidence of increased hurricane risk.

I'm also very happy all of our forum friends have come through this ok but we haven't heard from Notes yet. He's written many times that they're at the far end of internet service in a rural area. They may be offline for some time.

Bob