It's North Atlantic/East Pacific Hurricane Season!

Balboa Island, in Newport Beach, exists only because of one big fucking tropical storm in the 40s or 50s that made landfall in O.C. that essentially moved a shitload of sand closer west. (unless this is an urban myth? Elvis T shoud have the lowdown here.)

The last time a tropical system made landfall in California as a tropical storm was 1939, so I suppose that makes sense.

Urban myth. Balboa Island was originally a sandbar that was extended into a full "island" in 1908 by dredging the harbor and piling the sand on top of the island. Lido and Linda Isle were also built the same way - make an island and then turn around and sell lots on the sand for $$$$.

The only tropical system to make landfall in Orange County in the past century was an unnamed system that struck on Sept. 24, 1939, during a heat wave that sent the temperature to a record 119 degrees in Orange. The storm's winds were blowing about 50 mph when it made landfall. The system lashed parts of Orange County with 5 inches of rain, swamping and capsizing boats in Newport Harbor, including the Jolly Tom. One of the Jolly Tom's passengers drowned and five were injured.

The combination of wind and rain was severe enough to kill 48 people across Southern California.

..which sounds like a picnic compared to an annual southeast hurricane, no doubt.. but SoCal has little to zero idea of how to deal with major tropical storms, so when/if one does happen, it will suck bigtime.

In any case, it seemed like someone fused this history with the creation of Balboa Island. I stand corrected.

I can't find any pictures online, but the photos of the 1949 snowstorm in SoCal are amazing.

A Florida businessman who claims he once made a thundercloud disappear from Doppler radar says he can take the fury out of hurricanes, too.

Washington, DC -- Peter Cordani isn't a meteorologist or even a weather aficionado. He's just a Florida CEO sick of seeing his state pounded by hurricanes.

As head honcho at Dyn-O-Mat, a maker of environmental absorbents, it dawned on Cordani about five years ago that his company's patented Dyn-O-Gel might have the power to take the punch out of hurricanes.

His first true test of the theory came in July 2001, when the company used a B-57 bomber to attack a thunderclap with the super absorbent polymer in the waters off Palm Beach. The storm evaporated completely from Doppler radar, according to Cordani.

"It was an incredible moment," he said.

Bolstered by the success of the field test, Cordani gathered a team of scientists and investors, plus a convoy of 747 jetliners from Evergreen Aviation in Colorado, for the mother of all trials.

Tropical Storm Arlene should be up this way by Saturday. I wanted to post it in my 2005 Hurricane Season thread and I've been searching for it but I can't find it at all. Did someone delete it?

-- Ian Riese-Moraine. Exposing ambitious careerists as charlatans since 1986. (eastern_mantr...), June 9th, 2005.

Allright, Tropical Storm Arlene's at 60 miles per hour and cruising through the Gulf in a northerly direction. We've already had some rain associated with the outflow of convection and we're under a tropical storm warning. Sweet.

-- Ian Riese-Moraine. Exposing ambitious careerists as charlatans since 1986. (eastern_mantr...), June 10th, 2005.

Latest update: 70 miles per hour and they keep moving the projected path further east and now the tropical storm warnings have been extended even further east. However, it's going north-northwest now, but we'll still get a lot of rain out of it (despite it having drizzled the entire day).

http://moe.met.fsu.edu/mm5/archive/2005070700/DENNIS.track.png

Lots of luck to the ILXors in the path of Dennis. I hope it doesn't trash you guys too badly.

The power only flickered once here. It's been very blustery, more so than it was with Bonnie, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne last year. Each system has been a little more damaging here in Tallahassee than the one preceding it and I think it's nature's way of preparing this city for something devastating soon considering that the last major hurricane to pass almost directly over this vicinity was in 1851. Nonetheless, I don't think we'll see much more rain out of this (although another squall's literally just coming in -- it's raining out immediately in front of my flat but it hasn't arrived at the back of it), and the winds will likely decrease on through the evening. As for debris, there's plenty of leaves strewn and branches down, some pretty large -- the largest one fell not even two feet from the trunk of a police car (that "belongs" to an officer in the apartment building to the left of mine). The rain kept blowing into the windows as if my flat were inside a car wash, and the peak gusts around here were about gale-force. It's been quite fun to watch, even if gusts have blown open our door about four times (we've walked outside a bit and returned inside without bolting the door, that's why)!

The one thing I remember from "being in the middle of a hurricane" footage was the weird thing where toilet water receded and if you stuck a wadded up tissue in there, the toilet would vacuum it up. That was really weird to see. I forget the physics explanation related to why that happens.

The toilet thing's possibly related to the ultra-low pressure in a hurricane, but I'm probably wrong about that.

There's apparently a tropical wave halfway between the Lesser Antilles and Cape Verde's and it might be a tropical depression by tomorrow at the latest. I wonder where that'll head, considering that the Bermuda high will likely still be parked in the same spot as it always is in summer and serve undoubtedly as a steerring mechanism provided that the system goes far enough west and survives.

Time for crashzzzzzzz.

How are things in Tallahassee?

Oy, it looks like there'll be an Emily threatening the central Caribbean as a hurricane by Friday. Hmmm...

54 confirmed deaths now, and i think that's just within one county in mississippi.

We never did lose power or phone/DSL.
About 10 p.m. last night, one of the three big trees on our property went down — a 60 ft. scalybark (hickory) tree. It fell west, missing utility lines to the north, my office to the east and our house to the south.

About 11 p.m., I noticed water seeping down our bedroom wall. Went up to the attic, and we have a roof leak around one of the old unused chimneys.

Other than that, I think we're okay except for the usual small limbs and twigs cleanup. I'll take pictures, and post some whenever I have time.

this thread is unbelievable. though ilx usually is

And authorities said they would not be able to reach some of the hardest-hit areas until first light on Tuesday.

The storm is blamed for at least 67 deaths and that toll is almost certain to rise. Mississippi officials said at least 54 people were killed there, including 30 who were killed in an apartment complex near the Biloxi beach. Alabama reported two deaths. The storm killed 11 people last week when it made its initial landfall in Florida.

While Louisiana officials have not yet confirmed any deaths there, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said there have been reports of bodies floating in the floodwaters.

"My heart is heavy tonight," Nagin said in the interview on CNN affiliate WWL-TV. "I don't have any good news to share."

Nagin said that about 80 percent of the city was flooded and that some areas were under 20 feet of water.

Water poured into the city from Lake Pontchartrain after a two-block-long breach opened in a section of a levee that protects the low-lying city.

In the city's 9th Ward neighborhood, rescue efforts continued throughout the night, with authorities in boats plucking residents from submerged homes after water topped another levee.

CNN's Adaora Udoji, monitoring the rescue efforts, said authorities had ferried at least 500 people from their homes, flooded with as much as six feet of water. Some residents reported water rose so fast they did not have time to grab their shoes.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco told CNN Monday that a 50-inch water main was severed during the storm, cutting the supply of drinkable water.

The more I read about this storm's aftermath...damn.

it's going to take a long time to survey all the damage. and cnn are often slow to report things, but then they've got A LOT of areas to cover.

what ned said.

Katrina's aftermath

More than three people from a nursing home. Especially if the news is going to lead with it.

I assumed that they meant Rain In The Afternoon?, but now I realize that fuck, we got another 'cane a-coming.

texas gov & louisiana gov have declared States of Emergency.

oh dear.

Obv I don't plan on doing anything on Saturday, which is when all the fireworks are expected to happen locally.

Actually, it'd be ideal if Rita hit right between Corpus and Galveston. It'd still provide damage galore to both AND to Houston, but it wouldn't be The Worst Case Scenario for anyone (except for maybe the poor souls who DO live right between Corpus and Galveston).

Well, I mean, if it's a choice between stragglers having to find last minute non-train non-commercial-bus service vs. having those vehicles/trains destroyed by not having them leave in time, therefore crippling those services for months if not years afterwards, I'd choose the former -- though neither scenario is a picnic.

Donut, your friend should be FINE. Friday's definitely before the storm is projected to hit the TX Gulf Coast. No need to fret.

I've got relatives in Bellaire (Houston). Ouch.

BTW, anyone stop to think what kind of utter havoc this will play on shipping in America? New Orleans, the chief port at the mouth of the Mississippi, is shut down for a long, long time. All its refineries are toast. Now, Houston, among the largest ports in the nation, and the refineries along the Texas shore are playing target practice for another category 5.

running out of names for hurricanes. They use one name per alphabet letter, and next they're going to the greek alphabet.

-Jacksons
-Baldwins
-Wilsons
-Pop stars who put out books of their own poetry
-Arquettes

AGREEMENT AMONG THE TRACK GUIDANCE MODELS...WHICH HAD BEEN VERY GOOD
OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS...HAS COMPLETELY COLLAPSED TODAY. THE 06Z RUNS OF THE GFS...GFDL...AND NOGAPS MODELS ACCELERATED WILMA RAPIDLY TOWARD NEW ENGLAND UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF A LARGE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION. ALL THREE OF THESE MODELS HAVE BACKED OFF OF THIS SOLUTION...WITH THE GFDL SHOWING AN EXTREME CHANGE...WITH ITS 5-DAY POSITION SHIFTING A MERE 1650 NMI FROM ITS PREVIOUS POSITION IN MAINE TO THE WESTERN TIP OF CUBA. THERE IS ALMOST AS MUCH SPREAD IN THE 5-DAY POSITIONS OF THE 12Z GFS ENSEMBLE MEMBERS...WHICH RANGE FROM THE YUCATAN TO WELL EAST OF THE DELMARVA PENINSULA. WHAT THIS ILLUSTRATES IS THE EXTREME SENSITIVITY OF WILMA'S FUTURE TRACK TO ITS INTERACTION WITH THE GREAT LAKES LOW. OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS...WILMA HAS BEEN MOVING SLIGHTLY TO THE LEFT OR SOUTH OF THE MODEL GUIDANCE...AND THE LEFT-MOST OF THE GUIDANCE SOLUTIONS ARE NOW SHOWING WILMA DELAYING OR MISSING THE CONNECTION WITH THE LOW. I HAVE SLOWED THE OFFICIAL FORECAST JUST A LITTLE BIT AT THIS TIME...BUT IF WILMA CONTINUES TO MOVE MORE TO THE LEFT THAN EXPECTED...SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES TO THE OFFICIAL FORECAST MAY HAVE TO BE MADE DOWN THE LINE. NEEDLESS TO SAY...CONFIDENCE IN THE FORECAST TRACK...ESPECIALLY THE TIMING...HAS DECREASED CONSIDERABLY.

I can see them all tearing up their forecast models and quitting for a beer.