We’re all going to die!
Okay, we aren’t really going to die but a hurricane is coming to a portion of South Florida which rarely gets hit by storms. As it stands right now Hurricane Wilma looks to come ashore at Naples. There is a bit of play here, North or South, but its pretty much certain that she will hit in this general area.
Looking at the current radar and satelite imager it seems that if Wilma follows the predicted track, the worst of the storm will be on the northern side. Usually we want to talk about the addition and subtraction of wind speeds as they relate to the movement of the storm, and I’m certain that this will still have an impact. But, because of the cool air coming down from the North, the northern portion of the storm looks like it will have the worst weather. Lots of tornado warnings are already in effect all over central Florida.
Even though it looks like Ft Meyers might get the worst of the weather that doesn’t mean the rest of the state is off the hook. Miami can expect at least cat 1 force winds because even as the storm comes ashore, a big chunk of the storm will be wrapping around the tip of Florida. This means that both the West coast and the East coast can be getting hurricane force winds at the same time. They need to stop their rivalry and come together in this time of crisis. It ain’t about the East Coast/ West Coast, its just about people!
But probably one of the biggest concerns, which is always one of the biggest concerns, is the storm surge. Dr Jeff Masters has a nice graphic showing why this is important. If the storm hits Naples as a fairly strong cat2 with a storm surge between 8 and 14 feet then that town is going to be fairly wet. that storm surge could go inland as much as 20 miles inland.
So, things are looking sketchy for Naples. I think things are going to be both worse and better than expected. I imagine that a bunch of people have overprepared while a number of others are underprepared. I expect to be posting back over the night and maybe in the morning, depending on if I have power or not. Some of the outer bands are expected to whip through Tampa (one not to long from now). And, we could feasibly have tropical storm force winds (any jog to the North makes things worse for Tampa. It should make for an interesting night.
One last thing to keep an eye on. The track of Wilma could very easily send her across Lake Okeechobee; this is one of the largest lakes in the United States. If Wilma does come across the lake then the lake will have all the same conditions and effects that the coastlines have. One of the worst storms in American history is called the Lake Okeechobee storm, even though the storm initially came aground in Palm Beach. This storm caused the lake to overtop its levees on both the North and the South sides (first one then, as the storm passed, the other). They have dramatically increased the levess on the lake since that storm but if a cat2 comes straight across it there could still be quite a mess.
Everything is chill in Miami. For now. If it’s only Cat 1 winds, I can handle that. I handled that last month! But the winds will be from a different direction, so . . . I guess different trees will fall and different windows will leak.
I’ve fortified the cupboard and my gullet with some Jim Beam (uh, the same Beam left over from the Leo Luau where VMJ–haha, code!–drank quite a bit of tequila), which always reminds me of the smell of Longhorn football games. Correction: game, since I actually only went to one. Beam and coke is my bev of choice at art openings, btw . . . my football games, I guess.
I’m kind of on edge, but at least I don’t have to worry about a storm surge. I’ll try to visit here every now and again as long as I have power too.
The threat of a tornado really scares me. I hate how unpredictable they are!
Wilma is a category 3 storm. Let’s see if she can hold out against the shear.
Ugh. Can’t wait for the 11 pm advisory.
Double ugh. Could get ughlier around these parts. I’m going to go offline now and get the computers stashed away.
any floridians online? everyone ok?
It looks like, according to the radar, the eye is beginning to go offshore (de-land? make waterfall?). The nothern eye wall is passing across Lake Okeechobee. The Southern eye wall is passing across Ft Lauderdale.
I spoke to both my mother and my sister, and they are fine. I’m told that everyone else is fine. Nobody has power though.
I’m fine, occasionally getting some gusts. I slept through the whole storm0coming-ashore thing, maybe things were worse then.
I haven’t talked to my buddy down in Ft Meyers. The radar shows that he is almost out of it though, so maybe I’ll call him and see if his phone still works.
Fox News has what appears to be some drunk guy reporting from key west. He is standing in the middle of a flooded street and, in the middle of his report, he keeps turning to random people off camera to get their opinions.
“I’m standing in what is probably some of the worst flooding on the island…Have you seen it worse? You? Yeah. The houses here, theres one, are just above water. The last thing they need is some car driving by and creating…wake, a wake right? Yeah, last thing they need is a wake.” (paraphrased, of course)
I saw that guy on the news while I was getting the oil changed at red arrow. I din’t realize he was drunk, I just thought he was an idiot. I now feel bad for the negative thoughts I had about him earlier; we all say silly things when we are hammered.
sometimes i think, for a title, you should mabye call yourself “The Hud”.
i mean, until you get your degree. of course, nobody is as cool as The Agent, who will one day get to go by “Dr. J”
Sometimes I do. Check out how I am listed whenever I comment on your site.