Hurricane Season

[Meredith]

Yes, it's the time of year again on the Texas Gulf Coast (and lower Atlantic Seaboard, and Florida and...and... you get the idea). It's Hurricane Season. Now, the Texas gulf coast is on the Gulf of Mexico (hence the name "gulf coast"). This is like a bowl-shaped area of water that acts like a cul de sac when we *do* get storms. Add to this Galveston Bay, a fairly sizeable beachfront that is part of Galveston Island, which used to be called "bad luck island" by the Spanish conquistadores if that gives you an idea of the island's luck with weather. Now, in 1900, a HUGE AWFUL BAD STORM nearly destroyed the island. Thousands died, swept out to sea or worse. This made them build the Sea Wall, which keeps the rest of Galveston from washing out to sea (or gulf as the case may be). Bear with me--this mini history/geography lesson is going somewhere. The sea wall has kept the island from washing away on the valuable beachfront where tourists go (those who choose not to go down the coast to Corpus Christi and it's clear waters, white sands and bitier sharks). However, Galveston is a large island. The Gulf Coast is a HUGE expanse. Now, when we have hurricane warnings and watches and "too late now, put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye" alerts, they monitor Galveston, a place called High Island which is further east, almost to Louisiana, and then to the south, places like Corpus and Rockport, in short most of the beach communities. EVERY damn year, the meterologists act VERY surprised that we have hurricane season and trot out the media vans to Galveston on sunny days (because girls are in bikinis and make nice backdrops, it seems), High Island on rainy days (because angry looking fishermen in chest waders with deep sea fishing gear in their hands make for interesting sound bytes that all come out in a deep drawling twang and seem to be "fuck off, flatlander"). The news guys walk up and down the sea wall, seeming very impressed with it's presence, pointing out the statue there of a man, woman and child cowering beneath an invisible wind, looking as if they are about to be swept away and then, in a grave tone, say "Are we due for *another* Storm of the Century?". Segue to the news room where they EVERY YEAR seem disappointed when we didn't have a hideous natural disaster the year before involving high winds, tornados, hail, flooding, massive waves and tides that kill people and animals... They mourn the lack of a hurricane of our very own here on the Texas Gulf Coast and then, brightly, say "It's been (insert length of time here) since our last hurricane... this means we're due for a huge one this year!" My question is... how do they know this? Is Mother Nature hoarding hurricanes somewhere, checking off places on her desk blotter? "Well, Texas hasn't been slammed in a while... Here ya go! Six of the buggers!" The weathermen expound with glee on the possibility (to them probability) of not one but SEVERAL hurricanes and tropical storms for Texas, telling us that our relatively good luck in dodging that weather bullet the past few years (Houston got Tropical Storm Allison...Galveston was mostly spared so that only half counts, lol) is a sure sign that this year, hooooooo doggies, we're gonna get slammed! It bothers me that a.) they seem to have a strange idea of weather patterns, mainly that they seem to think some weather god somewhere is saving up hurricanes and tropical storms to send us when we've been good little coast dwellers and deserve to be threatened with death and destruction and b.) they're so damned happy at the prospect.

[UnknownSource]

Their lifes centre on weather mishaps and disasters, they probably go home at night and watch "World's worst hurricane" everynight hoping beyond hope that one day they will be the one to report on the next Storm of the Century and get fame. Or maybe it's something to do with the completely screwed up weather patterns that have been going on. I dunno about you gives but the climate here is definitely changing most likely due to damn global warming. Which is leading to most severe weather patterns everywhere.

Maybe it's just in Britain ,but the storms here during the winter are getting feircier, what used to be relatively harmless rains and winds are leading to mass flooding in villages and gale force winds in areas that have rarely experienced them before. In my town on the atlantic coast, the sea wall, that stops the waves crashing over into the children playpark and most of the stores on the seafront, is becoming obsolete and the waves just crash over it and floods the drains. We had a really late winter this year, with lots of snow in inland areas and ice on the roads leading to a lot of car crashes and deaths because in my area we aren't prepared for that type of freeze. Maybe during the holidays it would've been safer with less people on the roads, but not whenever school and work starts back and people are travelling on pathetic dirt paths. Overall though it came later the weather here is getting bad, seriously bad. Though on the flipside we're getting warmer weather in the summer it has been nearly 20C everyday for the last few weeks (bar today which just sucks) so maybe it's worth it.

So is it just here that the weather systems have gone kaput or is the weather messed up were you live too?

[Meredith]

It's kinda weird here, too. People don't realize that these big cities are heat sinks and just HOLD weather patterns over them, esp. rain and storms. And they dam rivers which causes flooding when they can't follow their natural paths (I'm thinking of the Mississippi here)... *sigh* But yes, much wonky weather all around. Maybe it's because we're nearing the end of the Holocene epoch and shifting to a a new glaciation. That's the other thing that gets me so irked. People freak out about how we're shifting to an ice age... IT IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN! Albeit, the destruction of the environment is NOT, but the epochs shift and we go from warming (such as the current Holocene) to glaciations (like the one that faded in the Bronze Age). *sigh* Yes, US, much wonky weather.

[Tergon]

I hate the weather for a different reason; that nobody seems to care about it.
I live on a farm. We have livestock, crops, and so on. That's what farms do. And, as such, the weather determines what plant life grows on the farm, and how well it grows. If nothing grows, the farm is not likely to produce very much of anything. The farmers are therefore in a lot of trouble, money-wise.

Now, it's not that I get angry at anyone for the weather. What annoys me is that people don't *care* about how it affects people. The Victorian Government declared a state of drought in 2003 and offered drought relief for affected farmers. Sounds good, right?
Wrong.
One, the drought's been going since about 1995. Two, the drought relief was a pathetically small amount that couldn't realistically help anyone very much. Three, it was (of course) directed only in areas where the votes were needed. Four, a lot of it went to 'hobby' farmers - people with dual incomes that don't *depend* on the farm's earnings to put food on the table.
The amount that eventually trickled down to the small people, the ones who *needed* it, was utterly pitiful. And when it *did* rain, the government declared the drought was over for most parts of the state and cut off the support. According to their 'experts', one bout of rain will break an 8-year-drought. Got to love that logic [/sarcasm].

I think you've got the same problem. Bad Weather can have serious effects on people. But unless someone is directly effected, they tend not to give a rat's ass. The weather is just another aspect of the world that revolves around them.

[Meredith]

My dad's side farmed rice and my mom's were sharecroppers. I know how hard farmers are hit by weather and how little the gov't tends to do to help. I'll save my rant on the American gov't and the farming industry for another time but suffice it to say, weather disasters from droughts to floods to tornados and everything in between do more than mess up neatly trimmed trees in the nice part of town or make it inconvenient to take a vacation. Peoples' lives and livlihoods hinge on it and it's pathetic and sad that the people who can help in times of need choose not to.

[Radical Nike]

I heard on the news recently that the American southwest is reverting to a more arid weather pattern. There is a drought there at the moment, apparently, so everyone is freaked out. According to the news spot I saw, the dry weather is actually normal for that region. The past 100 years or so was unusually wet, which is when most of the population growth in the area occurred. Now they have all these people living where the climate won't necessarily support their lifestyles. In Las Vegas, Nevada, there are incentives in place for people to replace their lawns with cacti.

Another bit of environmental data: as most people have probably heard, Venice, Italy, is sinking. I mean, who hasn't seen news spots of Italians walking on makeshift boardwalks with waders on? Now, Venice is a beautiful city with a great deal of historic and artistic merit, plus (more importantly) people live there. There are plans in motion to build a seawall off shore that would control how much sea water would be able to reach the coast, which, of course, has environmentalists in a tizzy.

Now, here's my question: is it an act of hubris or denial when humans attempt to thwart the realities of nature? Venice sinking and the southwestern United States drying up are both the results of changed weather patterns and now everyone is all shocked and amazed. One would think that it would give more people incentive to understand global implications of weather-affecting behaviors and learn from them. Or learn to accept them, anyhow, since we're stuck with the results now. Sheesh.

[Meredith]

I'm voting for denial. The desert Southwest revert to desert doesn't seem like it should be a shocker, but the people who freak out tend to be the ones who seem offended about volcanoes daring to erupt or tectonic plates shifting.

[UnknownSource]

It really sickens me the apathetic viewpoint lots of people have to nature and the world around them and their lack of incentive to change things just because it doesnt suit them. I mean lets consider the fact that we've completely polluted the atmosphere and have nearly exhausted all fossil fuels. Ok so to combat this why not just switch over to renewable, enviromentally friendly energy sources?

Recently here there's been a big drive for renewable energy sources, it's pretty windy all year round so it s great for wind turbines. But then when a windfarm was proposed to be positioned 3 miles offshore enviromentalists and locals got up in arms about it cause it'll be an eyesore. It made me unbelievibly pissed off, because the people who protest against it are the same people who sit on their asses, dont have a clue what's going on in the world around them and expect the world to look after itself. I feel like shaking them and yelling look people, there are more important things than your inconcvience, we've treated this Earth like shit for the pass couple of hundred years and now we're paying the consequences. So what if you're going to have to spend more money on taxes so the government can invest in more eco-friendly energy resources and so what if your precious view is destroyed? If you had been giving a damn maybe 50 or so years ago about just what the hell you were doing to the earth you could've changed it and stopped it, but you didn't so now it's time to pay the piper. I dont think it's fair that we have to live out our futures and have our kids live out their futures in a dying world just because of the ignorance, selfishness and laziness of the older generations.

[Sock Munkey]

Did you know that with a little work you can run a car on the used cooking oil from fast food places? It smells like french fries when it runs. :-D

[Meredith]

Actually, all diesel engines can do that. And there's several places that sell it and call it "Grassoline" or some such. *G*

Biodiesel, I believe, is the technical term. Someone researched it this year for a science project, and I learned about it some in debate camp. It runs on the products of plants like soybeans and restaurant grease, and it pollutes very little. However, IIRC, engines can't take more than a 20-80 ratio of Biodiesel-gasoline, and some can't even take 5% biodiesel. So it isn't a cure-all (unless I remember wrong), but it would sure help.

[Meredith]

Hm. I need to tell my brother the diesel mechanic that, lol, before he uses it anymore.

[Sock Munkey]

Propane is a pretty good alternative too. A car made in the 50s converted to propane can run almost as clean as a modern car.

[Meredith]

I think propane is used more than the biodiesel is at least down here. I know a lot of campers run on it these days, or maybe it just seems like that cause I live kind of near a propane filling station thing.

[Sock Munkey]

It has an additional advantage in that since its a gas it doesn't leave all those nasty abrasive and corrosive deposits. The engine lasts a lot longer.

[Moodring]

Loisiana, where I am it doesn't hit very bad. But it is fun when it rains really hard.

[Dragonfox]

Delaware's weather stays pretty regular, Thank God. My Grandpa's a farmer. He grows strawberries for the U-Pick stand in the spring, then potatoes, soy, and other later season crops when the strawberry season's done. (mmmm...fresh strawberries..... ::drools::)

Hurricanes rarely hit the Delmarva Peninsula, but when they do people act like it's the end of the world. My family's never gotten any damage from hurricanes before, but we do still watch out for the "big one."

The real big panic for Delawareans is snow. Two inches can delay classes! Four can cancel schools! Now, these are *inches* and not *feet*.
Senior year snow canceled class and all the car-owning students drove to the mall/movies/etc.
I used to work at Happy Harry's, a drug store/convience store/pharmacy, and we got a mad rush whenever they called for snow. People will rush in to refill *half full* perscriptions as though their two-week remainder won't last through the *inches* of snow accumulation that will be clear the next day. The line would go from the Pharmacy in the *back* of the store, curl around a few eisles, and then head for the door. I learned very quickly that you don't even bother to talk to the pharmacists and pharm. cashiers during that rush, not even on their breaks. (The effect is similar to poking a croc with a short stick)

The only time I've seen a time for such overreaction was the blizzard/ice storm in the early 90's. The snow blocked a lot of people in, and my Alaskan Malemute, Mitzi (who was overjoyed at the amount of snow), had to stand on her doghouse to keep above the snow and ice. My dad (I was just a little one then....) picked me up and put me on the ice from the open garage door (it was piled up over my head there, about 3/4ths of the way up the garage door) where I promptly fell and slid for three feet.
We were snowed in for a week, luckily with power/gas/water. We were out in the boonies, so that was how long before the local farmers managed to dig out/ defrost their tractors to plow the roads.
Sadly, I've no longer got Mitzi... although the snow reminds me of her.


People are morons when it comes to weather.

Our (Me & Christa's) college is pretty good with weather. Classes are rarely cancelled, but there is much rejoicing when they are.
We recently had some tornado watches and warnings for our area as twisters were getting spawned from hurricane remnants. Since it was a weekend, no class cancellations, but the school was shut down and all of the dorm girls were ordered into the dorm basements.
((Although, now that I think of it.... one of the "safe spots" was the haunted tunnel....))
We were in there until the warnings passed. Nothing hit near us, but it was a precaution I'm glad to see the school took. Most of the other girls were complaining, but I wasn't bothered by it. Nalia was pissed, though. I woke her from her nap..... silly hamster

Wow. That would be great if school up here got cancled because of 2 inches of snow, I mean, we had that before halloween. This supports my theory that most americans are easily frightened.

Wow. 2 inches? That barely warrants a coat here! I suppose out on the coast you don't expect it though... Actually, the last time they closed school it was because of temperature. Negative 15 or something?

*Is sad because the weather patterns have kept the snow away.*

Hahahahahahaha! -15 is closed schools?

Up here in Canada we get - 40 and school is still open.