The Atlantic Hurricane season this year got off to one of those starts that should have made you stop and ponder.
There’s time to fix that outlook.
With warmer-than-usual oceans and all the right pieces to finish the puzzle, it’s almost a wonder than the season hasn’t been more powerful.
The National Hurricane Center before the summer forecast 17-25 named storms, 8-13 hurricanes and from those predictions, 4-7 cyclones could be powerful, above Cat 3 systems.
As I do some homework and start to plug away, all of my years sometimes become a lot easier to remember.
When I was younger, nobody really paid much attention.
For me, that changed with some meteorology classes at ODU and an intensive learning pattern that included time and stories with the National Weather Service in Wakefield, and a whole lot of reading and studying.
But even the best knowledge could change sooner than we know and that means it’s past time for a boat plan to go along with everything else you would have to get prepared for.
Now we’re looking at short-lived Hurricane Debby a cyclone that made landfall in the Florida Big Bend area of the Gulf Stream. It is the fourth named system of the year and our area is looking at a potential tropical depression with heavy rain and some wind beginning around Thursday.
As of noon Monday, winds were at 70 mph.
So let’s dish out some advice for boat preps and let you develop your own ideas for home. If your boat is tied up to a local pier or dock, make sure everything is stowed and locked up. Also, make sure batteries are charged and in working order to operate the bilge pump. Give your ropes a little more play, because we could be looking at some very high tides leading to minor flooding.
If you tow your vessel, find a secure place for it and make sure it is properly tied down and secured.
Whatever we end up getting from Debby, forecasters right now say we should be safe overall – albeit wet and wind-blown.
Still, the cyclone could provide some excellent time for practice of something bigger and possibly more damaging.
It’s not like our region hasn’t had a few hum-dingers as far as tropical weather is concerned.
One of the most severe wasn’t even a hurricane, but a spring nor’easter known as the Ash Wednesday Storm of March 5-9 of 1962. It was also called the Great March Storm of 1962 and caused 40 deaths, with 1,000-plus injuries and $100’s of millions of dollars in damage. The outer bands of the Ash Wednesday Storm even brought about 42 inches of snow to the mountains of North Carolina and Virginia.
Numerous tropical systems have passed through the region of the decades and centuries.
Yet, still, there is an overall complacency that looms over an area that seems destined for a big one.
This isn’t going to be that storm, but it’s a good time to take care of what you can and be safe – and practice the things you’ll need if it was.
To read more of my work, go to: leetolliveroutdoors.com.
