Hurricane Season 2013

NHC is up

Just had to share this. We're in New Orleans for Karen. I went to the grocery store to stock up on a few just-in-case items. The water shelf was nearly empty except for a few packs of small bottles. The vodka and rum sales were brisk though. I'm seeing hurricane party announcements galore.

I'm making a pot of Jamaican black beans and rice tonight and a lamb stew tomorrow night. The cold front coming behind the storm will bring gorgeous weather with highs in the 70s and overnight lows in the 50s. Perfect sleeping weather even if the power goes out. I've got multiple bags of water freezing in the freezer (keeps food cold for a while and then potable afterward). Candles - check. Flashlights - check. Extra batteries - check. Water, vodka and rum just in case - check.

Why anyone would vote down that post is beyond me, but whatever. It's a lovely evening in advance of the storm.

10pm observations are up. She's slowed down to 6mph. That's not good for folks on the east side where most of the rain occurs. Looks to be a long night overnight tomorrow.

It's gonna be rough. I feel for the ones in the path.

TS Karen meets a cold front from the west and stalls off of the LA coastline. Almost all of the rain activity is over the Gulf and expected to stay there. Landfall now forecast for tomorrow morning as a tropical depression.

I'm following, just haven't commented.

Pretty much a non-storm at this point. You can almost see a face in that satellite photo.

See its breath too.

India is menaced by a big one.


Hurricane Phailin is set to be the strongest storm to ever come roaring out of the Indian Ocean. Phailin (pie-leen)—Thai for sapphire—is a massive storm in both strength and size.

The U.S. typhoon forecasting centre is predicting Phailin to hit as a Category 5 hurricane with winds peaking at more than 195 miles per hour. Phailin is nearly 1550 miles across, says meteorologist Eric Holthaus.

For reference, tropical storm Sandy was 700 miles across. “Some forecasters likened its size and intensity to that of hurricane Katrina, which devastated the U.S. Gulf coast and New Orleans in 2005,” says Reuters.

Almost landfall. Down to a strong cat 4. Still not good, but better than last night's cat 5 forecast at landfall.

My thoughts and prayers to all along the Indian coastline.

All we can do is watch and wish them the best of luck. I hope the evacuations went well.

And, it's barely the beginning.

MANILA (Reuters) - Authorities in the Philippines grounded air and sea transport on Thursday and urged fishing boats to return to port, as an approaching super typhoon, the most powerful storm on earth this year, gathered speed.
Related Stories

Philippines evacuates coastal areas as approaching typhoon strengthens Reuters
Thousands flee before big typhoon hits Philippines Associated Press

Typhoon Haiyan is expected to make landfall early on Friday between the central islands of Samar and Leyte.

With center winds of 215 kph (133 mph) and gusts of up to 250 kph, the storm, rated as category five, the most severe, was moving west-northwest at 33 kph in the Pacific Ocean.

Cuidate Filipinos

I was just reading about that on a different site. It doesn't look good.

Well it's time to sign off for this years Hurricane season. No major hurricanes!
Hasn't happened since 1994 in the Atlantic where we reside.