After a somewhat rainy and stormy afternoon here in East Tennessee, it doesn’t seem like a huge leap to note the fact that hurricane season has officially begun and there is a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico.
To be sure, the gulf waters aren’t calm and placid tonight. For someone like me – far away but with a casual interest in the topic – it’s something I choose to follow.
In any case, Tropical Storm Andrea is threatening the coast of Florida just as The Weather Channel has listed its Top 10 most vulnerable (and overdue) cities for a hurricane hit. Many of the destinations are in Florida (including Tampa, which isn’t that far from St. Pete Beach - a place where we enjoyed a peaceful day in the sun and surf a few years back).
Honestly, Tennessee isn’t generally affected by many hurricanes. From time to time, one will make landfall and track in this direction. By the time they get to the Tennessee Valley, we generally just get rain and wind. Occasionally, the system will still hold tropical storm or tropical depression status, but that is more a statistical fact rather than a practical one.
Heavy rain, after all, is heavy rain.
It’s a curiosity that seven of the 10 cities on The Weather Channel list are Southeastern. I guess that is fairly logical. But, those are the ones from which a tropical system could spin in this direction.
As an aside, Houston is also on the list. For some reason, Holly and Paul object to the way I pronounce Houston (without emphasis on the ‘H’ – Uston as opposed to H-h-h-yuston). I’m not sure what that has to do with h-h-h-hurricanes, but I thought I’d throw it in for consideration.
Back to tropical weather…the list from TWC mentions places like Jacksonville, Charleston and Savannah. Mobile is also on the list.
It has a definite Deep South flavor.
Early June isn’t a time that we generally think much about Hurricane Season – especially when killer tornadoes have dominated the conversation recently. Besides, the peak of the season falls around Labor Day. But, I suspect there will be a time – maybe in late August or mid September – when we’re down to J or K names in this year’s storm list. Someone will casually mention ‘Andrea’ and then we’ll all go “Oh yeah, I kind of remember Andrea…”
But tonight, I’m sure for the people of Florida, the topic of Andrea is top of mind.
JG
(Source: weather.com)
Originally posted 6/5/2013
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