Hurricane Irma Aftermath
Well, what can you say...after a week of 24/7 news coverage, endless doomsday pontifications, mass evacuations, and great hysteria...the storm is gone. Lots of regional flooding, downed trees and pow...
Forum Discussion
I think a lot of folks really don't comprehend a few facts about these storms:
1. Intensity varies based on location and movement of the eye significantly. Being on the NE quadrant of the storm is significantly more potent than the SW side. Everything from the wind intensity, rain, storm surge and tornadoes are different.
2. Power fluctuates based on where the storm is and how it interacts with what it is traveling over. This particular storm rode the Cuba coast and weakened significantly only to move up into FL straits and strengthen again before landfall. If it had missed cuba or skirted a bit to the north and the results would of been quite different.
3. These storms travel 3k+ miles to get here. A 30-50 mile difference in track on impact and the storm misses Cuba and basically destroys the east coast of FL with 180 MPH winds. I don't think people comprehend how close we came to this occurring and how lucky we are that it didn't happen.
So take all that into consideration please. We got VERY lucky with this storm. We will not always be lucky. Even weakened this thing did significant damage to the keys and Naples. Fortunately Florida tends to build things pretty well and is relatively new overall so they can eat a Cat 3 and its like getting a Cat 1 in most other parts of the country.
The news on the East coast of FL,especially the northern counties was a bit over blown. What you need to remember though is that even a tiny jog east and it would of been much stronger. So I can cut them some slack on that even if it was a bit much with the street signs shaking in 70 mph gusts.
One final thing, the weather channel has been a joke for decades. Use weather nation or one of the local feeds for weather sans drama.
1. Intensity varies based on location and movement of the eye significantly. Being on the NE quadrant of the storm is significantly more potent than the SW side. Everything from the wind intensity, rain, storm surge and tornadoes are different.
2. Power fluctuates based on where the storm is and how it interacts with what it is traveling over. This particular storm rode the Cuba coast and weakened significantly only to move up into FL straits and strengthen again before landfall. If it had missed cuba or skirted a bit to the north and the results would of been quite different.
3. These storms travel 3k+ miles to get here. A 30-50 mile difference in track on impact and the storm misses Cuba and basically destroys the east coast of FL with 180 MPH winds. I don't think people comprehend how close we came to this occurring and how lucky we are that it didn't happen.
So take all that into consideration please. We got VERY lucky with this storm. We will not always be lucky. Even weakened this thing did significant damage to the keys and Naples. Fortunately Florida tends to build things pretty well and is relatively new overall so they can eat a Cat 3 and its like getting a Cat 1 in most other parts of the country.
The news on the East coast of FL,especially the northern counties was a bit over blown. What you need to remember though is that even a tiny jog east and it would of been much stronger. So I can cut them some slack on that even if it was a bit much with the street signs shaking in 70 mph gusts.
One final thing, the weather channel has been a joke for decades. Use weather nation or one of the local feeds for weather sans drama.
