Friday, September 08, 2017
An increase of storm activity over time
The article “What Lies In Irma's Path” has an interesting graph:
![[The first satellite was launched by Russia in October of 1957, yet this graph shows a remarkable uptick in storms starting around 1951. I have to wonder what changed to cause more storms to be tracked. The National Hurricane Research Project, which later became the National Hurricane Center, wasn't started until 1955. Perhaps alien white squirrels?]](/2017/09/08/hurricane-freq.png "The first satellite was launched by Russia in October of 1957, yet this graph shows a remarkable uptick in storms starting around 1951. I have to wonder what changed to cause more storms to be tracked. The National Hurricane Research Project, which later became the National Hurricane Center, wasn't started until 1955. Perhaps alien white squirrels?")
That uptick in activity around 1950 is due to better weather monitoring and not because of some anthropomorphic deity trying to smite us out of existance. The rest of the article isn't really worth reading as it comes across as scare-mongering, much like the rest of the reporting about Hurricane Irma. Personally, I find the reporting from the National Hurricane Center to be the best—it's level headed and not so “in-your-face” about the dangers. But they don't try to sugar coat the threat either. It's actually quite refreshing from the rest of the media storm (pun intended) going on.
And meanwhile, Bunny and I await the coming storm.
And now we wait
Well, let's see …
- Food … ✓
- Water … ✓
- Shutters … ✓
- Clean porch … ✓
- Batteries … ✓ (except for 6 volt batteries—we didn't get any in time)
- Gas … ✓
- Kerosene … ✓
- Generator … ✓
- Obsessively checking the National Hurricane Center for updates … ✓
Nothing much more to do than to wait.
…
…
…
Are we there yet?
