So labor day turned out to be quite a day here bringing pleasant temps with sunshine and a breeze. Today will be okay but with some clouds and a slight chance of showers this afternoon. In fact, this whole week we will be hearing "chance of showers" quite a bit. Welcome to the unofficial end of summer.
Hurricane news seems to be all we have been talking about but with good reason. Florida is digging out again from its latest unwelcome visitor, Hurricane Frances. It wasn't quite as strong as Charlie, but its enormous mass covered pretty much the entire state and moved so slowly dumping an enormous amount of rain over 20 inches in some areas. The weakened tropical storm (now depression) Frances looks to be headed up towards western Pennsylvania over the next couple of days where it is expected to peter out and bring some clouds and showers to the area but nothing all that significant.
If we were pals with Florida, we wouldn't take her to Vegas with us. 2 significant storms within the month, over 6 million people are without power, the latest storm leaves estimates of up to $10 billion in damages, currently 8 people confirmed dead from Francis (2 in the Bahamas), and now luck has another hurricane, Ivan, revving up east of the Caribbean that could bump Florida good again this coming weekend. Just looking at a few local news sites can start to give you an idea of how devastating these storms can be.
How do we get all the info about hurricanes as they are tearing through the oceans? Well, sure we have lots of satellites, radar, and computers to evaluate and predict winds, pressure, and bearing but the true readings come from the insanely brave people at NOAA, hurricane hunters, who fly planes into the eyes of these beasts (our friend Bridget prefers to call them "hurricane crazies", a title we might have to agree with).
Gothamist strongly recommends you take 20 minutes today to read this first person account by Jeffrey Masters, one of the co-founders of The Weather Underground, who used to be a hurricane hunter and describes in gripping detail his experience almost losing his life on a mission in 1990 intercepting Hurricane Hugo.
Fifteen years ago, a NOAA hurricane hunter airplane intercepted Hurricane Hugo as it approached the Caribbean islands, just before Hugo's destructive rampage through the Caribbean and South Carolina. The crew of the airplane were the first people to encounter the mighty hurricane--and very nearly became its first victims. The mission remains the most harrowing flight ever conducted by the NOAA hurricane hunters. I served as flight meteorologist on that flight, and feel fortunate indeed to be able to tell the story.
Hurricane... crazies...
