Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Racing Through the Hurricane Names this Season

I'm Facebook friends with Vicky, a former colleague; in what feels like long ago times, we both worked at the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale.  When we had Tropical Storm Vicky, she wrote this post:  "After 40 years I've finally made it as a tropical storm. Hope I'm just a light breeze."  And then, "Oh good.  I'm non-threatening."

I wrote:  "You're staring wistfully out to sea, wondering about all the shores where you will never arrive, all the distant lights that you will not extinguish."

I already had hurricanes on the brain.  Earlier in the day, I wrote my own post:  "On this day of hurricanes coming ashore, I noticed on the NOAA website that we've got a storm named Vicky now. Soon we'll be using Greek letters, which makes me think about whether I'd rather have my house threatened by Hurricane Alpha or Beta--which version would be the improved version? And what does that mean with a hurricane, not with a VCR? Hopefully there will be no Hurricane Omega this year, but it's 2020, so a Hurricane Omega wouldn't surprise me."

The reference was to Hurricane Sally coming ashore, which she didn't do on the day that I posted (Tuesday).  In fact, Hurricane Sally is only just now making eyefall as a category 2 storm (winds of 105 mph), with the eye of the storm over Gulf Shores, Alabama.

A Facebook friend who is riding that storm out just posted this:  "Needless to say but surf sounds in the house are not as relaxing as white noise machines would have you believe."  She posted a picture of her living room, with the door floating on the puddle of water that's accumulating in her house.  Luckily, she has a second floor.

The Gulf Coast washes away, the west coast of the continent burns--I don't really understand those who deny climate change.  We can argue about the cause, but both the weather and the climate are very different this century than they were just 20 years ago.

It's clear I need to rethink my retirement location plans--and sooner, rather than later.

No comments: