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Hurricane miscellany

Well, here we are, awaiting the worst of Hurricane Katrina.

They had said that Tropical Storm Katrina would strengthen into a hurricane, and it did. It’s a weak one, but hurricane nonetheless. There is very real possibility that it will make landfall right here. In fact, according to the latest advisory, “the center of Tropical Storm Katrina was located … about 15 miles east-northeast of Fort Lauderdale Florida and about 25 miles east-southeast of Boca Raton Florida.” What’s between Boca and Fort Lauderdale? Pompano Beach, Lighthouse Point, and good old Deerfield Beach. (At least we live fairly inland, though.)

But let it be known that landfall, by definition, is when the center of the storm reaches land. We’re getting the storm already, but apparently not the worst of it. Also, nothing sets apart a tropical depression, a tropical storm, or a hurricane other than sustained wind speeds. When a tropical storm’s sustained winds reach the magic number of 74 M.P.H., it is considered a hurricane. Don’t ask me why. (Although high wind speeds are generally associated with being well organized, or vice versa.)

Which reminds me: it looks like this storm isn’t strong enough to have a distinct eyewall, which is a shame, because I’ve always wanted to be in the eye of a hurricane. They say it’s oddly serene, and that it smells vaguely funny. Maybe the next time we get a direct hit…

This has been an unusually active hurricane season, as you may have noticed. Yesterday was the anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, the first storm of the 1992 season. (For those who don’t know, Andrew wreaked havoc on the Miami area and is considered the stick by which all other hurricanes are now measured.) Katrina. And today we have the 11th named storm of the season on our hands. I don’t think anyone ever expected such a busy season. Only 21 names are allotted for hurricane use each year, but we’ve never run out of them. According to Wikipedia, the letters of the Greek alphabet would be used after the last name, for example, during this season, Alpha would follow Wilma. But this has never happened.

Hurricanes have existed for years, and even before satellite imagery, people have always been able to tell a hurricane from any other type of storm.

How to tell if a hurricane is coming:

• Falling barometric pressure.
• Skies are entirely gray.
• On and off periods of rain.
• Wind picking up and swiftly moving low, gray clouds.
• Bottled water disappearing from Publix.
• Windows being boarded up.
• They’re saying so on TV.
• People are leaving like crazy and taking all the gas with them.

Well, wish me luck as we ride out the storm. If you live near me, wish yourself luck as well. And I wish you luck also.

The electricity has been blinking quite a bit over the past two hours. If I don’t post tomorrow, we’ve probably lost power.