Hurricane Season is near


laronius
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14 hours ago, laronius said:

Yup, that's a concern.  I may be without power again for a few days this summer.  I'll be sure to fill up my water tanks (I'm on a well).

For others in the gulf area:

  • Prep your 72-hr kits.  Don't wait until the night before the forecast.  If you live in Houston, you should already have a kit.  Just top it off before the season starts.
  • Fill up your bathtubs with water the night before the hurricanes are forecasted.  This will give you water for toilets.  I have a well, so with no power, there is no water.  But what many aren't aware of is that the water you receive from the MUD is pumped (with electricity).  So, your water will also be affected by a widespread power outage.
  • As you get soda from the store, don't throw away the bottles.  These are probably the best vessels for storing water that are cheap and readily available.  Wash them thoroughly, fill with water, and let it sit out in the sun for a full day.  This will kill all the bacteria that are prone to UV (which is most of them).  Chlorine is also an option. DO NOT USE BROMINE for drinking water.  Chlorine will also prevent algae and similar life-forms. UV will feed it.
  • Get a battery backup / battery extender for your cell phone.
  • Have a 2.5 to 5 gallon gas jug filled for each vehicle that you may be using during the emergency.
  • My family if planning to visit Nauvoo during hurricane season.  So, we're getting a house-sitter for that week.

We are acutely aware of this sort of thing because the house is in the 500 yr flood plain.  This basically means that with a 100 yr storm, we see  flooding (1" of more) around the house during the actual downpour.  But by the time the storm is over, the "shoreline" is a couple hundred feet away from the house.  So, I'm going to stock up on mosquito spray.

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Also - 

Just because you're not close to the coastline does not mean that you'll be unaffected. 

I live four hours northwest of Houston, Texas, which is on the coast. 

You'd think that such a distance would offer protection from anything going wrong, correct? 

Except...

1. The sheer total area that's affected by a hurricane is so great that if something was to hit Houston, I could still reasonably expect strong storms in my area. 

2. Evacuees fleeing Houston could easily come over to my part of Texas, if not further out, in order to get out of the direct area of effect. This would present an immediate need for charitable assistance, lodging, and supplies as these people have to find resources and a place to stay while they're up here. 

3. Houston is a major shipping port, so anything going in or out of Houston would be delayed until the hurricane passed and the damage was cleaned up. So that's physical goods and resources tied up for the duration. 

 

If you live within 4 - 8 hours of an area that is going to get hit, you can reasonably expect local-area disruptions. Plan accordingly.

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That being said, a personal anecdote:

Back when I was finishing my undergraduate work, a hurricane was projected to hit along the Texas / Mexico border. One of my brothers was living there with his family, and we agreed to host them for a few days. 

The catch?

The college I was taking my 300 and 400 - level classes through was slowly migrating to doing examinations online so as to allow more actual in-class time for lectures and demonstrations. The same day that my brother and his family were due to arrive was the same day that my midterm in one of my capstone classes was to go online. To be more specific, the test would go live a mere hour before my brother and his family were due in. So I explained to my parents that at this time on this date, I needed to be online to do my test. Otherwise, there was no guarantee I'd be able to get it done with everyone around. 

Shortly before my test was supposed to start, my mom decided that the lawn needed to be mowed. So I pulled the mower out (it was a gasoline-powered mower), got it ready to go, and started it for her. I then went inside, fired up my laptop, and logged onto the college's online portal. Cue my test. 

Dad came home from work about 10 minutes into my test, meaning that I was still taking it and my mom was still out front mowing. He'd had a bad day at work, and so had forgotten that I said I had a test that evening. He saw my mom out front mowing the lawn, saw me on my laptop, and exploded. It took me three attempts, during which I had to repeatedly show him the screen, to explain that I was taking my midterm and that mom decided to mow the lawn despite this. 

For obvious reasons, although I finished my midterm I failed it miserably. Fortunately, I blew the class project out of the water and got a 90% on my final exam, so was still able to pass. 

 

Just another example of how hurricanes can affect people who don't even live near the path of one. 

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20 hours ago, laronius said:

I found the article interesting and the idea of loop currents to be something we ought to pay attention to.  However, I felt that the article went completely off the rails with the suggestion that monster storms become even more dangerous when coupled with human induced global warming.  I did not see any indication that loop currents are directly linked to human produced atmospheric carbon.  Nor did I see any data that human produced atmospheric carbon is even a concern.  The article was about oceanic loop currents which may be linked to human pollution of the oceans but again, no data.  

For the record - I am concerned with oceanic pollution but that is a very different than the claim of climate change from atmospheric carbon.  My personal research indicates that geothermal warming (increases in geothermal activity) not only increases atmospheric carbon but also alters climates.  It was geothermal activity that ended the last ice age and according to data is responsible for the warming of Antarctica.  I wonder how much loop currents are effected by deep sea geothermal activity?  But that was not mentioned.  I have been following geothermal activity for 40 years and it does appear to me that there is an increase - but I am no expert.  I did work on a government study of changes in solar activity and changes in sun climate.  The study was done about 45 years ago and we knew then that changes in the sun would likely have effects on earth climate.  So I am skeptical to the politization of climate change.

 

The Traveler

 

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7 hours ago, Traveler said:

I found the article interesting and the idea of loop currents to be something we ought to pay attention to.  However, I felt that the article went completely off the rails with the suggestion that monster storms become even more dangerous when coupled with human induced global warming.  I did not see any indication that loop currents are directly linked to human produced atmospheric carbon.  Nor did I see any data that human produced atmospheric carbon is even a concern.  The article was about oceanic loop currents which may be linked to human pollution of the oceans but again, no data.  

For the record - I am concerned with oceanic pollution but that is a very different than the claim of climate change from atmospheric carbon.  My personal research indicates that geothermal warming (increases in geothermal activity) not only increases atmospheric carbon but also alters climates.  It was geothermal activity that ended the last ice age and according to data is responsible for the warming of Antarctica.  I wonder how much loop currents are effected by deep sea geothermal activity?  But that was not mentioned.  I have been following geothermal activity for 40 years and it does appear to me that there is an increase - but I am no expert.  I did work on a government study of changes in solar activity and changes in sun climate.  The study was done about 45 years ago and we knew then that changes in the sun would likely have effects on earth climate.  So I am skeptical to the politization of climate change.

 

The Traveler

 

I totally agree. I do believe that climate change is real because the climate is always changing but I've never been convinced that it is human caused so I just ignore that part of it but I'm still interested in the actual changes we are witnessing. Likewise I do recognize forms of pollution that without a doubt are man caused and should be cause for concern.

Though I do wonder about the connection between climate change and pollution with the increasing evil in our day. Is the world itself, which is completely obedient to the will of Diety, responsive in a negative way to sin? Are the natural disasters we have and will experience merely divinely timed to coincide with the last days or are we experiencing a natural negative kickback as a direct result of widespread wickedness? 

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Well the weather prophets appear to have gotten the trajectory of the storm correct this time as southern Florida is getting a bunch of rain. But fortunately it never formed into a hurricane.

I have to say that I'm surprised that with all the technology that allows us to measure and observe what happens in our atmosphere, there is still so much unknown about what will actually happen, especially in cases such as this. I don't know about other parts of the country but here in Arizona weather men/women are known as being predictably wrong. They get the sunny and hot part right most of the time but any departure from that is a great mystery.

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8 hours ago, laronius said:

Well the weather prophets appear to have gotten the trajectory of the storm correct this time as southern Florida is getting a bunch of rain. But fortunately it never formed into a hurricane.

I have to say that I'm surprised that with all the technology that allows us to measure and observe what happens in our atmosphere, there is still so much unknown about what will actually happen, especially in cases such as this. I don't know about other parts of the country but here in Arizona weather men/women are known as being predictably wrong. They get the sunny and hot part right most of the time but any departure from that is a great mystery.

What are you talking about?  Don't you know that man's science is 100% infallible?  It would never lead us astray.

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  • 2 weeks later...

16 June.

Heavy winds from Africa, but they're coming from over the Sahara instead of the usual spawning point for Atlantic hurricanes. 

As a result, the Gulf of Mexico is getting blanketed with Saharan sand, with my area being affected as well. 

It's been miserable for those of us with allergies, and we're hoping that a potential rain storm this week actually does form so that the sky will be washed clean. 

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On 6/16/2022 at 9:52 AM, Ironhold said:

16 June.

Heavy winds from Africa, but they're coming from over the Sahara instead of the usual spawning point for Atlantic hurricanes. 

As a result, the Gulf of Mexico is getting blanketed with Saharan sand, with my area being affected as well. 

It's been miserable for those of us with allergies, and we're hoping that a potential rain storm this week actually does form so that the sky will be washed clean. 

That's a bummer. I'm amazed at how far those dust particles travel. 

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18 hours ago, laronius said:

That's a bummer. I'm amazed at how far those dust particles travel. 

It happens every few years. 

As it is, most hurricanes form where the Equator and Prime Meridian meet, which is off the coast of Africa, so that should tell you how the winds blow and how hard they can be.

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1 hour ago, Ironhold said:

It happens every few years. 

As it is, most hurricanes form where the Equator and Prime Meridian meet, which is off the coast of Africa, so that should tell you how the winds blow and how hard they can be.

They actually form a little closer to Cuba than that.

https://scijinks.gov/hurricane/

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2 hours ago, Ironhold said:

As it is, most hurricanes form where the Equator and Prime Meridian meet, which is off the coast of Africa

Hurricanes form near, but not at, the equator. There are no Coriolis forces at the equator, so bad storms rarely or never occur there.

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1 hour ago, Vort said:

There are no Coriolis forces at the equator, . . .

It’s true. I served my mission in equatorial Brazil, and no one had flush toilets there because they don’t work—the water can’t decide whether to go clockwise or counterclockwise, so the toilet never empties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

;) 

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29 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

It’s true. I served my mission in equatorial Brazil, and no one had flush toilets there because they don’t work—the water can’t decide whether to go clockwise or counterclockwise, so the toilet never empties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

;) 

You jest, but it was amazing to me to find out how many Americans—I believe it's a majority—think that the direction of toilet bowl water spin is determined by the Coriolis force.

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  • 3 months later...

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