Hurricane Season Ends Today!

Once again, we've come through relatively unscathed. Another hurricane season come and gone. For the third year in a row, there have been 19 named storms in the Atlantic/Caribbean area. It's pretty unusual to have this level of storm activity in any three-year period. Dr. Jeff Masters, founder of Weather Underground, said that "Since 1851, only two seasons--2005 (28 named storms) and 1933 (20 named storms)--have been busier than 2010, 2011, and 2012."

Preliminary 2012 Atlantic Storms

Even though today is officially the last day of the season, it's wise to keep a weather eye peeled for a couple more weeks. There's always the possibility for a late, out-of-season storm to hit us. As we used to say in  another life - "Relax, but don't go limp."

Hard to believe that six months just blew by (pun intended) like that. Now all we need is for the skies to clear up so the sun can shine unimpeded and warm our pool back up. Seventy-six degrees just ain't cutting it. We took down the awning once again to encourage that warming process, but with the sun hiding behind a cloud bank, that becomes a tall order.

Anyway, if you've been holding your breath, waiting for the next storm to strike, you can begin to exhale now. Slowly, slowly... There. Now, don't you feel better?

First One of the Season!

Well, we knew it was bound to happen sometime or other. Here it is, May 12, and this just showed up in my mail box:

Atlantic Special Tropical Weather Outlook

05/12/2012 01:40 PM EDT

000
ABNT20 KNHC 121739
TWOAT

SPECIAL TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
140 PM EDT SAT MAY 12 2012

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...

A NON-TROPICAL LOW OVER THE EASTERN ATLANTIC ABOUT 400 MILES
SOUTHWEST OF THE SOUTHERN AZORES ISLANDS HAS DEVELOPED THUNDERSTORM
ACTIVITY NEAR THE CENTER DURING THE PAST 24 HOURS. THERE IS SOME
POTENTIAL FOR ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT AS THE SYSTEM MOVES LITTLE
DURING THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS...AND THE LOW HAS A MEDIUM
CHANCE...40 PERCENT...OF BECOMING A SUBTROPICAL OR TROPICAL CYCLONE
DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS. ADDITIONAL SPECIAL TROPICAL WEATHER
OUTLOOKS WILL BE ISSUED ON THIS SYSTEM LATER TODAY OR SUNDAY...IF
NECESSARY.

ELSEWHERE...TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE
NEXT 48 HOURS.

$$
FORECASTER BEVEN

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This service is provided by NOAA's National Weather Service.

NOAA National Weather Service Logos

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GovDelivery, Inc. (800-439-1420) sending on behalf of the National Weather Service · 1325 East West Highway · Silver Spring, MD 20910

You can get your very own Weather Blast'O'Gram, or whatever they call it, emailed to you during the season (they cease automatically during the rest of the year) by going to: (http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/signup.shtml) and entering your subscription information.

I emailed it to several friends. It's a nice easy start to our hurricane season down here (which runs from June 1st through November 30th of each year) as a reminder that that time of year is fast approaching.

We've started preparations already - removing various bits of wood and other crap from the property so we lessen the chance of missles flying around; making sure that things that shouldn't fly are tied down; and remembering to be ready to put the plywood up on the burglar bars and being ready to remove the pool awning... All that sort of stuff that becomes second nature after a couple of weeks but is hard to remember when the season first comes on us.

You might want to take a gander at our Hurricane Preparedness Checklist (http://winjama.blogspot.com/2010/05/dust-off-plan.html) - it's our hurricane disaster plan. It'll give you a good idea of what we do preparedness-wise throughout the season. But, here's the big tip - don't just copy ours... Take it and make it your own. Modify everything/anything in it to fit your situation - add stuff we've forgotten, delete stuff that doesn't pertain to you. Make it work for you.

You might want to visit (http://downloads.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=779507) and download Andy Ladner's Hurricane Monitor gadget for Windows. I use it year-round and find it's an indispensable tool. It's free and works really well, plus, it takes up minimal real estate on your desktop. Andy and I've corresponded several times over the past few years as he was developing this gadget. He really listens. It's a great gadget and the price is right too.

Stay safe and have a great hurricane season!