Monday, August 30, 2010

Starry Night

I'm a hurricane tracker!!



Not officially, I don't have my own little farty plane that flies into the eye of the storm (which would be AWESOME), but I'm very interested in the weather.

It's true! I'm really nerdy about it. My mum thought I was a little weirdo, because most kids watched the Flintstones while they were eating their breakfast, getting ready for school.

I lay on the couch watching the Weather Channel till the last possible second I had to get dressed and walk the 5 minutes to school.



When you look at the Atlantic map on the National Hurricane Center Website, it's very artsy and swirly. Like the brushstrokes of a Van Gogh painting.





Chuck thinks I'm tempting fate and a hurricane will crash down on us and wipe us out by even looking at that website. When I give him a tropical storm update, he looks like he has the urge to go put on hip-waders.

Chuck's been through a few crazy hurricanes. I sometimes wonder why he bothered to stay in Coastal NC if he's so freaked out by them.

When Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, I had just come back to Canada from visiting Chuck. My grandpa was dying of lung cancer, so my brother Kurt and I trekked up to Northern Saskatchewan from Edmonton to hold vigil with my mum and the rest of my extended family.

I remember sitting in my grandma's living room, my grandpa there in a hospital-type bed...watching all the horrific events unfolding on the news because all we could do was wait and watch TV. It was like a movie, but it was real. Surreal. I don't mean at all to make light of the damage hurricanes can do, I'm just very interested in how they work.

In Edmonton, the worst things we had to worry about weather-wise were tornadoes and blizzards.

Tornadoes didn't happen very often in the city. The worst one on record was July 31, 1987...I didn't have to even look that date up because it was so infamous in Edmonton history. I was six, being the flower-girl in my uncle's out of town wedding at the time. My dad and my two older brothers were home though, and watched the whole thing from the outskirts of Edmonton. Luckily it didn't harm them.

Snowstorms were par for the course, they were bad every year. You kind of just got used to digging yourself out of your driveway so that you could get to work.

Did you know that a hurricane is unlikely to affect land west of Bermuda if it forms east of 35 degrees longitude?? No?? Well, there you are, you just learned something.

Danielle passed us by, but we may or may not get affected by the edges of Hurricane Earl. Wind? Rain? Nothing? Tomorrow we'll get a better picture of where it'll hit exactly.

Weather is fascinating. And meterologists on the news are always the weirdest people on the program. Perfect fit for me!!



*sigh* ...Just a bookseller with a dream. A crazy weather dream.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Kyna, What a ray of sunshine you are!!

All this talk of hurricanes and tornadoes is most unsettling, give me a good old London pea souper any day!!

Cynthia said...

Hey Kyna
I just discovered your blog. Love the weather stuff. We're sort of obsessed, too, which is not surprising for people who live on the New England coast.You have to stay on top of things.....
I moved to Rhode Island 12 years ago from Montreal, so I can identify with a lot of what you're saying. I'm going to add a link to your blog on my blog!

Becca's Dirt said...

I am right there with ya on watching the weather. I love stormy skies and the winds and rain from a tropical system. Earl could cause some problems on the Carolina coast though. Hoping it isn't bad.

Kimberly said...

You're nothing without a dream...so keep dreaming! I love the weather channel too. I watch it regularly along with Whale Wars and the Deadliest Catch. Otherwise, I don't watch much TV...kind of worthless these days.

Is the Wiz said...

Dear Kyna, our weather forecasts have been so dumbed down that they're pretty innaccurate and I remember my neighbour in the Highlands saying "If you can see Ben Vrackie it's going to rain, if you can't see Ben Vrackie it's already raining.
p.s.You are only 7 years oder than my son. You've just made an old lady feel very - old!

Kyna said...

Edith: Rae of sunshine...that's what Chuck used to call me. My middle name is Rae :)

Cynthia: Nice to meet you, I hope you'll be back! :) My husband was born in Providence, RI. My mum lived in Montreal for 3 years (until about two weeks ago), and I've been there twice. Love that city. Wonder what brought you to RI? :) And thank you so much for adding a link to my blog, very flattering! :) (thank goodness for the edit button, I almost put fattering...takes on a whole different meaning!)

Becca: I don't think it will be too bad. If I lived a little more north, I think I would be more affected. The Outer Banks (Cape Hatteras) will get some more stuff than we will down south in Onslow County, I think. I have been through 2 mild tropical storms, and they were kind of interesting. Not enough to damage our house (our neighbours lost some shingles), but seeing the bands of cloud swirling was pretty neat. For a Canadian girl :)

Kimberly: I love Deadliest Catch! I was kind of sad last season though, with the one Captain that had cancer. But they're pretty hardcore!

I used to be like that with TV, thinking it was all worthless. I must say I don't think that these days. There is some very creative TV on. Showtime and HBO have some very AWESOME shows, I watch a lot of History Channel and PBS as well. I find merit in TV, where I didn't before. Maybe it's just Chuck's influence, he would have a TV in both bathrooms if I let him :P

Is: I'm only 5 years older than my husband's daughter...think how old that makes him feel! :P :D Meh, I may be 29, but my brain has a few wrinkles on it.

I really like what your neighbour said (I even know what that quote's referring to without Googling it!). This place is full of fog and low-lying clouds in a usual year. Not this year though! Blazing sun all the way...

Laura said...

Dreaming is good! Keep it up! Someone needs to explain these weird weather patterns to me ;)

Northern Beauty Seeker said...

Kyna, I totally understand your obsession! My fav weather anchor on the Weather Channel is Christopher St. Clair....he loves his job and geeks out totally when he is excited. I get that. :)

Marguerite said...

I have this very weird fascination where I love watching storms and always have this secret wish it will hit wherever I'm living so I can 'live through it'. But having experienced wind storms in Vancouver I know I"m also a terrible scaredy cat and would probably pee myself silly if a huge storm hit. Hurricane Earl is headed for the maritimes at this point, I'm watching and waiting with baited breath.

Jayne said...

My husband has developed a very keen interest in weather since moving from California to Texas, to live with me :-) Of course, he happened to be in HAWAII when Hurricane Ike hit the Houston area, so he missed all the excitement.

Melissa said...

LOL! This is great! I, too, am a weather watcher. Midwest tornadoes, thunderstorms and microbursts. OUCH! I check my Weather Channel app several times a day and can't wait to run outside and check the rain gauge after a storm. I completely irritate people by going around saying, "we got 2 1/8 of an inch of rain yesterday." I know they really don't care, but I can't stop myself. Here's to Keeping the Dream Alive.

The Idiot said...

I must say that I've been interested in storms since I was in Typhoon Ketsana. It's a horrible thing to say considering how many people died, but I really enjoyed it. I was running around filming it like a stupid kid on Christmas morning. I was, to be honest, very drunk too. There's not a lot else to do in the middle of a Typhoon.

Next I want to see a tornado!

Kyna said...

Laura: Or we could all just make it easier on ourselves and just stick our heads out the window to see what's going on, couldn't we? :D

Ms.S: I'm not sure if that guy was on when I was still in Canada, I think he was?

Marguerite: Pee yourself silly, LOL! Actually, I think you may have a better chance of getting some stormage from Earl than I will! I check the Hurricane Center site every few hours, and it looks like it's going to hit a bit north of us, just clipping Cape Hatteras. If you look at its track, it's still heading straight for you guys. Hopefully it won't be too bad by then though. You'll still get to see a good storm, but you won't have any pee puddles to clean up afterwards :D

Jayne: Yeah, 'cause California has only one type of weather. Sunny and comfortable :P

Kyna said...

Melissa: Haha! I'm glad I'm not the only one to geek it up with weather watching. I just find it so fascinating!

IG: Tornadoes are crazy, because they can do so much damage so quickly. One recently cut a path through a town near us called Maysville, just destroyed everything in it's path. Right through a church, then a store, then it downed a 200 year old tree. And then pfft, it's gone.

Some kids like to wake up to a train set on Christmas morning, some kids like to wake up to death and destruction. I still like you anyway. Nutter.

Pam's English Garden said...

Hello, Kyna. To me hurricanes and the like are scary stuff. I agree with Edith, give me England's temperate climate any day. Let's hope Earl doesn't do too much damage. Pam

Martha said...

I've decided that of all local weather thingies, I prefer earthquake country. Problem is, earthquake country seems to come with drought and wildfire country. Hmph.

I really, really like the last picture, BTW.