Some Sandy Observations

Just read the 11 am update saying Hurricane Sandy's winds are up to 90 mph -- if they got to 96 it would be Category 2 instead of Cat 1 -- and the storm's pressure of 943 mb, according to Phillyweather.net, is typical of a Cat 4 storm. So there's this incredibly large storm, pretty intense, and atmospheric conditions are causing it to basically make a left turn into the coast near Atlantic City. Such a sharp turn for a hurricane in this region is close to unprecedented, and the fact that it's gotten a bit stronger even though it's moving north and away from more tropical waters is very unusual.

Between this and last year's Hurricane Irene and those ridiculous Snowmageddon blizzards a couple of years ago and lots of other things, don't tell me global warming isn't screwing up our weather. Don't waste my time with that tired non-scientific right-wing stupidity.

Anyway, it's a very strange couple of days. I'm nervous about my roof holding up under the expected rainfall, and couldn't fall asleep last night. I got the newspaper delivered, though, even with the state of emergency being declared. (Might be a different story tomorrow morning.) I finally started to read it and dozed off for about 2 hours. I imagine I'll be sleeping on and off since I'm not leaving the house.

The local TV stations and the Weather Channel are going non-stop with storm coverage but it seems like there's nothing on any stations that warrants my watching it for very long. Coverage ranges from inane to inept. 

So far, except for the time I was sleeping, it seems like it hasn't rained to an extreme extent. The brunt of it is still south and west. The good news is, if what I'm reading is correct, the landfall might occur a little earlier than previously thought. Phillyweather.net pegs it at between 4 pm and 7 pm. If so, perhaps it'll clear out of here sooner.

I might update this later. Maybe even with video.

UPDATE 1: Took some video around 4:20 pm. Just rain and some wind. The worst of it is still to come, they say.



UPDATE 2: Another video. Since it's getting too dark I don't know if I'll bother taking any more. Lot more wind, lot less rain at this time (6:15 pm).



UPDATE 3: 10:15 pm. Can't see much because it's too dark. Listen to the wind, though. Tree branches were really swaying.

Earthquake!

In a shameless attempt to lure more hits, here's my story of the Great East Coast Earthquake of 2011, or whatever they end up calling it:

I was sitting in a booth at Burger King having lunch. (So you know this is exciting.) I felt movement in the seat and thought there was a little kid in the booth behind me kicking the back of the seat. I turned around to yell at the kid, but the other booth was empty. I resumed eating. Then I went to the supermarket for a few items, walked home, and turned the TV to the Weather Channel to see the latest on Hurricane Irene. Instead, they were reporting on damage to the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. from a quake (5.8 on the Richter scale, centered 40 miles northwest of Richmond, Va.) and I wondered: was it the earthquake that I felt back at Burger King? Since there was no brat behind me it couldn't have been anything else. It had to be the earthquake, right?

I got online and saw that my Twitter and Facebook feeds were haywire from everyone talking about it, and reportedly people felt it from Maine to South Carolina. So it had to be the earthquake -- the first one I've actually noticed while it happened. We've had a few minor quakes in the area -- a couple of tiny ones have occurred just this year -- but unlike other people, I didn't feel a thing. Until today.

There you have it. Now, let's sit back and wait for the blog hits to pile up.