The Portrait of Hurricane Dorian

[Pete]

After fizzing by Puerto Rico with minimal damage, Dorian is picking up steam and may make landfall in Florida as a Cat 4 over the weekend. Smoke 'em if you got 'em, folks.

[JLSigman]

So now I'm a little worried. Gonna have to get the lists together and some shopping done this weekend.

[Ryan]

CONE OF UNCERTAINTY. We're still not great at weather prediction for all the obvious reasons.

Solution: Make it even harder to predict! It's working.

Edited September 1, 2019 by Ryan

[JLSigman]

"She's making a list / checking it twice / Dorian's not / gonna be at all nice"

[JLSigman]

It won't take much of a wobble in either direction to make this either a non-event or a really, really bad one.

[Ryan]

This is the slowest moving storm I've ever seen, but I'm sure there's others going a whole 1 MPH.

[Pete]

46 minutes ago, Ryan said:

This is the slowest moving storm I've ever seen, but I'm sure there's others going a whole 1 MPH.

It is Florida. He's driving like a senior citizen looking for a street address.

[JLSigman]

Things'll start getting interesting for me here in Columbia tomorrow evening. Hopefully it'll just be summer thunderstorm strength and nothing worse. 

Edited September 3, 2019 by JLSigman

[Chaos]

1 hour ago, JLSigman said:

Things'll start getting interesting for me here in Columbia tomorrow evening. Hopefully it'll just be summer thunderstorm strength and nothing worse. 

It's weakened to a Cat 2, and I think further land is going to kill this thing quickly. Weird seeing such a powerful storm break apart over mostly water like this much less just get stuck over the islands.

[Dolfan in NYC]

It's not that weird.  Dorian stayed put  because the High Pressure ridge to its east moved away and there was nothing to steer it off.   That causes the storm to stay in place, churning and churning water from deeper depths, thus lowering the temperature of it.  If a hurricane doesn't have ~80F (~25C) water, it loses strength and tropical characteristics.   That's why Europe doesn't get hit by (tropical) hurricanes.   

All that said, Grand Bahama Island, and a bunch of much smaller islands have gotten, by some estimates, 20 FEET of rainwater.  The pictures coming out now are of total fucking annihilation of the island.  And that's not hyperbole. 140,000 homes have been destroyed.  60,000 people are without fresh water.

Stop joking, start donating.

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-groups-launch-fundraisers-to-help-the-bahamas-recover-from-hurricane-dorian-11257909?fbclid=IwAR07MnirrRml5M50mYmoqjj1kcsDPdqSHqb5WdDVfjQR9qJHeMP2AOD6ZHY

If you can give, be sure to give to the *BAHAMAS* Red Cross  -- Not the American one.   

[JLSigman]

21 hours ago, Chaos said:

It's weakened to a Cat 2, and I think further land is going to kill this thing quickly. 

It's weakened, but it's also spread out. So while the core winds are lower, the amount of winds has expanded. I'm debating one last grocery run this morning and then battening down the hatches until Friday.

[JLSigman]

Thankfully it was mostly a non-event here at the Sigman residence. Got quite blustery at one point, heard a couple things bounce off the roof, but no damage. Neighbor diagonally across the road might lose one of their front yard trees as a huge limb from one of the big old sick pine trees came down on it, but it didn't hit their house. So thank you weather people for the warnings, glad it didn't impact me so bad.

Also, glad I don't live in North Charleston anymore, because they had a foot of water in the roads at one point.

[PB-13]

Mweep. Glad you and the family are doing okay.

[Control]

Already getting rain and wind this morning, with Dorian making landfall in Atlantic Canada later today. Pretty worried about the roof and the asbestos -shingle siding of my 80 year-old house.

[Control]

Lost power for about 40 hours. House is remarkably unscathed. Trees less than 200 meters away were blown over into houses, so really dodged a bullet.

[J.T.]

We got a bit of wind and some dark skies here in the 804, but that was about it.  The images coming in from the Bahamas are heartbreaking.

I am brimming with HBCU pride on the announcement that my alma mater, HAMPTON UNIVERSITY~!, has hammered out a deal with the University of the Bahama-North to bring in their students and allow them to complete their upcoming semester free of charge.

.... including room and board!

The students will then have the option to finish their education at Hampton at regular tuition and fees once the semester is over.

I am still smarting from those HU student loans that partially paid for my tuition, so I hope those folks have access to some grant loot or scholarship cash if they stay past Fall 2019.

[J.T.]

On ‎9‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 5:32 PM, Dolfan in NYC said:

If you can give, be sure to give to the *BAHAMAS* Red Cross  -- Not the American one.   

This.  I gave $100 to the BAHAMAS Red Cross.

I also gave blood and specified it be used for international relief.  

[J.T.]

JL, even if you are blessed enough to reach the age of 100, you will still consider yourself to be "almost 44."