Weather- September 2010

[TheOnionMan]

Hurricane Earl is getting close, although its track is a bit further east than first predicted, at this point with the eye just off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with Nantucket Island bearing the brunt of the storm.  Found a good site for hurricane tracking, it is:
http://www.stormpulse.com/fullscreen/current

You can zoom in and pan around, and turn clouds on/off, and radar (showing the bands of precipitation).

The storm has weakened, so it looks like we'll get some much needed rain, but will be accompanied by winds in the 39-57 mph range, enough to possibly knock some trees down and disrupt power.  Thankfully, I don't think it's going to be that bad in Massachusetts, although the coastal areas will be battered by high surf and waves.  landfall still appears to be in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada.

I post two screen captures of the projected track, one with clouds turned off, the other with it one, illuminating to see how far reaching the cloud cover and rain effect reach.  On the maps, the red dots indicates my location.

[Kristl Walek]

It's a busy "hurricane preparadness" time for many folks here in Nova Scotia----I did most of my work with the obvious this morning (moving everything light weight into sheltered locations). I noticed that the botanic garden here was putting visitor benches and signage into storage just in case. However, there is only so much one can do. So as the saying goes, one prepares for the worst, and hopes for the best.

Although it now seems that likely landfall will be Cape Sable, near Halifax, anything is possible, including the second scenario, which could bring the storm fairly close to home (landfall near Yarmouth). I am expecting mostly very high winds and plenty of rain here, and hope if the electricity goes, it will not be for too long. Hopefully John Weagle and other Halifax area members here will stay safe.

[Kees Green]

Large Earthquake here in NZ, no deaths but lots more rock gardens made
Seriously though I think Christchurch was lucky to escape any more damage, it was rocking pretty good here in Dunedin

[Maggi Young]

Good to know you are okay, Kees.
Just seen on the news about the earthquake..... 7.1 magnitude 30 mileswest of Christchurch worst hit, I think.... how dreadful. Hope that no-one is killed...... here we were worrying about hurricane Earl and Forumists on the East coast of N. America and wallop! chums in New Zealand are hit with this...... not good at all to have so many folks in trouble.


I'll be offline until tomorrow evening so I will be hoping for better news then.

[John Kitt]

Good to know our friends in the NZ seem OK. Heard on our news that there were no deaths but lots of water mains broken. I would have through that more water is  the last thing you needed!!

[John Kitt]

And now our news is saying that 9 killed in a plane crash in South Island in NZ.
Dear oh dear oh dear.

[TheOnionMan]

Terrible news about the earthquake in New Zealand; I spent some time catching up with news and videos after hearing about this.  I hope that all of our NZ friends are safe and without injury or property damage.

Waiting for the hurricane tonight, it continued to be pushed further east into the Atlantic due to an west-to-east air front converging on the area, so not only are we not getting much influence from the storm, I believe we will miss most of the rain from the storm too (rain still desperately needed here).  Hurricane Earl is now demoted to Tropical Storm Earl (sustained winds < 74 mph).  With all windows open and the air conditioner off tonight, the air is still warm, terribly humid, and uncomfortable... the hot weather pattern now continues into next week.   Again, the red spot indicates where I'm located... we got a trifling amount of rain, not enough to even puddle up.

I hope our SRGC friends in Nova Scotia get some good rain and temperature relief, and have an uneventful passing of tropical storm Earl.

[Lesley Cox]

And in turn, I'd like to wish the best possible, for you Mark, Kristl, John, Helen and all others in the affected regions. I hope any damage is not too devastating for you and your homes and gardens.

[TheOnionMan]

And in turn, I'd like to wish the best possible, for you Mark, Kristl, John, Helen and all others in the affected regions. I hope any damage is not too devastating for you and your homes and gardens.

Lesley, thank you for your concern, although we ended up having virtually no effect from the storm. The storm passed us further out to sea than initially projected, and it was far enough away, that we had no wind, and only a trifling amount of rain (unfortunately).  The storm was also running out of steam and downgraded to a tropical storm (sustained winds < 74 mph), and it moved on to Nova Scotia.  I'd like to hear from our SRGC Nova Scotia friends to see that all is well, and while the storm was potentially a direct hit, hopefully it was not terribly bad or destructive given the storm's diminished intensity.

[Maggi Young]

Frustrating for the Americans who were hoping for at least the rainfall from Hurricane Earl to relieve their drought situations.

Such a relief that the NZer forumists are at least unhurt after the earthquake. I don't think we have any Guatemalen forumists, where mudlslides are a problem... but there are plenty Forum Friends in  Victoria in Australia where there is very bad flooding.... our best wishes to all of you for a safe passage through all these weather hazards.

[johnw]

Power just came on here after 18 hours and just cleaning the refrigerator out of suspicious stuff. At last it has cooled off to 23c and the house finally too.  If it takes a hurricane to get rid of that nasty heat so be it.  I vow never to live in a place where you can sit outside in shorts and a teeshirt after 8pm.  It was hellish here for 4 days though no plant damage from the heat, a few Astelias got a bit of a toasting and alpine Primulas torched.

Hurricane Earl was bad enough but nothing like Juan in 2003.  While Juan was a borderline Cat3 this one was still a One went it hit (there is a difference between the US and Canadian standards for categories by a few knots). Juan did its damage in less than 3 hours, this one lasted a good 6 hours at significant strength, starting around 8:30 am and still blowing at 10 pm.   It supposedly was a staggering 650km across, and moved at 75km/hr on arrival. Happily is now off the radar near Greenland. Waves at the entrance to Halifax Harbour were measured at 23.3 metres, some as high as 30 m close by.  Winds at 123 km/hr here.  A mere 53mm of rain.  220,200 without power.

Any idiot could have predicted the landfall would be well east of what was predicted what with another low pressure system coming in from the west.  It came ashore near Lunenburg just 100km south of here and we closely missed the eye here. In typical fashion as the Hurricane passed by Cape Cod CNN reported it has now gone out to sea so everyone it out of danger, apparently their map for Atlantic Canada still reads "here bee wilde beestes". 

The Hurricanes that go up the Bay of Fundy don't lose steam and are exceedingly dangerous - one notable one in the 1800's left Nova Scotia as an island.

Everything here papered with leaves, many branches down and quite a few trees.  Every second street blocked off due to huge branches and powerlines blocking roadways.  Last night we went over to check a friend's house as she is away.  They live 3 streets up from here. A tree crashed into the house next to hers. Only minor damage to hers, mainly eavestroughing along the gangway. see photos. Her house is to the left with yellowish railings.  The blue house had huge holes in the roof and as you can see the balcony was devastated. I've seen sidewalks like that before - as a teen on the way home from the pub.

Now to move 200-300 flats back outdoors along with countless tubs.  Getting very sick of these storms and they are bound to become more frequent, time to start thinking about somewhere else to settle - someplace cool, mild and calm - maybe the Hebrides.

All this pales in comparison to the horrors in New Zealand and we wish them the best.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

Crikey!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Frightening stuff John !
Glad to hear it didn't do as much damage as was predicted - though it's bad enough as it is.

At this moment we're still enjoying our Indian Summer out here : 21°C - virtually no wind and sunshine all the way..

[cohan]

good to hear it wasn't worse, though bad enough.... summer is definitely over here--highs 11-17 this week, lows into the frost zone, clouds more days than not this week and showers likely several days..tough getting a chance to get out and do yard/garden stuff and seed collecting bike trips!

rarely big storms here, john, and rarely hot, though mild is not likely  a word you'd use for our winter

[Lesley Cox]

John, those tree shots look dreadful. I had a similar fall a few years ago but only onto my tunnel house and incredibly, no plants underneath were damaged, the plastic cover had enough bounce to protect them.

It's so easy to get bound up in one's own tragedies and forget what is happening elsewhere. Last night on the news after the 20 mins of earthquake stuff, there were very brief mentions of the Guatemalan mudslides and the flooding in Victoria, both devestating to the many people involved. And the appalling situation in Pakistan has gone off our radar altogether since the weekend. I suppose it's because we simply can't do a thing about those "other" problems, only our own. We shouldn't forget them though.