This Week
Hurricane Watch
Scuttlebutt Lags Behind Reality
Building a Tropical Depression
Hurricane Watch Friday, October 29, 2010 am PDT
Yesterday's shower area has grown into Tropical Storm Shary and is expected to give Bermuda a day or two of stormy weather.
Another potential problem in the Atlantic is a tropical wave southeast of the Windward Islands and following the path of Shary that might prove troublesome within the next few days. Stay alert.
Hurricane Watch Thursday, October 28, 2010 am PDT
In the days since Hurricane Richard made landfall near Belize and then fell apart in the Southern Gulf of Mexico it was beginning to look like the 2010 Hurricane Season was at and end. But like Yogi Berra once said, 'It ain't over 'till it's over.'
During the past 24 hours the tropics seem to be coming alive, not with one or two but three areas of tropical activity.
At the present time however, only one looks to be troublesome and that is a tropical disturbance flirting with the Windward Islands. Should it develop into a tropical system it is expected to move northward, by this weekend, toward the Western Caribbean.
The other two shower areas are in the mid Atlantic between the Cape Verde Islands and Bermuda. None of the three potential areas of disturbance pose any danger to the United States at the present time.
But with three areas of potential disturbance cropping up so quickly there could be others, so stay alert.
Hurricane Watch Wednesday, October 27, 2010 am PDT
The Atlantic Basin is quiet, however there are a few thunder showers left over from Richard in the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico.
In the far eastern Atlantic a couple of shower areas show up on satellite photos, but forecasters are downplaying any quick development.
Hurricane Watch Tuesday, October 26, 2010 am PDT
The remains of Richard is now in the southern Gulf of Mexico and nothing much left to be concerned about. The rest of the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean are looking rather quiet.
Hurricane Watch Monday, October 25, 2010 am PDT
Hurricane Richard made landfall Sunday evening about 20 miles south of Belize City with 90 mph winds and a battering storm surge with tall waves.
Richard's hurricane status was downgraded to a Tropical Storm since making landfall. The problem now is heavy rains that are causing some flooding problems for Belize. The rain producing storm will move across the Yucatan Peninsula during the early part of this week.
The only other tropical storm problem in the Atlantic basin is a weak system moving away from the African coast.
Stay tuned.
Hurricane Watch Sunday, October 24, 2010 pm PDT
Richard finally made a move into the warmer waters of the Western Caribbean where it grew into a Category 1 hurricane producing winds of 85 mph. Richard passes to the north of Honduras on a track heading for Belize, where it will make landfall this evening.
The rest of the tropics are quiet with the exception of a small system moving away from the coast of Africa and to the west.
Hurricane Watch Saturday, October 23, 2010 am PDT
Tropical Storm Richard is slowly moving to the west at 4 mph with wind speeds of 45 mph and gusts to 55. This slow moving system will pass near Honduras as it crawls toward Belize and the Yucatan. It could strengthen some as it passes over open waters of the Western Caribbean. So far, this system's threat to land will be heavy rains producing flooding in some areas.
The weak system in the Eastern Atlantic is nearing Cape Verde but according to forecasters it poses no threat to land at the present time.
Scuttlebutt and The Bloody Bucket
Around the middle of May word leaked out that the squadron was breaking up and would be leaving Jacksonville within the week. That much seemed to be a fact, but one thing that the rank and file didn't know was who was going where, Whiting Field located near Pensacola or Masters Field, Miami?
Over chow several of us figured out why we had so many new airplanes
coming into our unit. We had already determined which of the new planes would be going to Miami -- but that didn't answer the crew question. Everyone could sense that it was going to be soon and a kind of shipping out party atmosphere took over the squadron and the local bars began to see a definite upturn in business.
Now every military base in the world has familiar hangouts to drink, carouse,
pick up girls and swap war stories. Jacksonville had its own brand of watering holes, which were generally called bloody buckets. The class of those bars were several cuts below the Silver Dollar and hard to define although the word raunchy does seem to fit.
When orders did come and assignments were handed out I was on the Miami list. And whether you liked the idea of chasing hurricanes or not the move still called for another drink and a bunch of like-minded guys slated for Miami piled into an old Ford and we shoved off to the nearest watering hole. The words misfits, mavericks, or nonconformists might all be used to describe that gang of pleasure seeking revelers. The official uniform of the day was white -- but to the man we wore blues.
We might have picked the raunchiest of all the bloody buckets to have our last fling. In every way imaginable we tempted fate and late in the evening when booze was flowing and we were well into our cups there was a knockdown drag out fight. Not between sailors, soldiers or Marines, and not even between a drunken sailor and a civilian 4-F that had wandered into the wrong place. No the honor belonged to the joint proprietors of the establishment - two very attractive ladies. Well, the ladies part might be argued. In any event the red head and the brunet had been carping at one another all evening. Apparently the dispute was over some guy, the ex boyfriend of one and current boyfriend of the other. Eventually the brunet took a poke at the red head, chased her out of the bar and into the front yard where most of the inebriated customers followed the action and were treated to a real whing ding of a brawl. The ladies were pulling hair, scratching, kicking, ripping at each other's clothes and using language that would put an old sea dog parrot to shame. I, for one, was just tipsy enough to enjoy the performance.
I could be wrong, but as I recall when the fight ended and the two combatants returned to the bar, our gang piled into the old Ford and headed back to the base. Now how the Shore Patrol or even the local cops didn't pick us up I'll never know, but they didn't. Somehow we managed to sneak in under the radar, hit the sack and the following morning we reported on time, hangover and all, for muster.
Everyone in the squadron was aware that we'd be moving, that was all predetermined, but the swiftness caught everyone off guard. For a change scuttlebutt hadn't kept up with the actual rapid deployment to Miami.
We barely had time to unpack our sea bags and settle into the barracks when our second in command called a general briefing. Everyone dutifully filed into the main auditorium, having not a clue about what to expect. The commander stepped to the microphone and said, "Gentlemen welcome to Masters Field, Squadron 114."
(To be continued)
Building a Tropical Depression
The spin of the earth, searing heat from the sun at the Equator, eighty degree ocean water temperature and even warmer air and a flock of high cumulus clouds are some of the elements that could make up a tropical depression. Then when there's just enough disturbance to funnel that warm moist air mixing upwards with it's water vapor condensing into vapor and then droplets. And when those water and air temperatures are just right thunderstorms and rain become active and that mass of clouds begins to spin. The earth's rotation then forces the clouds to spin in a counter clockwise direction north of the Equator and clockwise to the south.
The winds spin around a low pressure center and the disturbance begins to take shape, The thunderstorms organize and follow the circular motion of the system. When winds are sustained at a speed between 25 and 39 mph you can be sure you are witnessing a tropical depression.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels Tungee's Gold, The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
Www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
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