Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Hi, Cindy

It's a special moment when a storm first earns its name.
The storm system churning in the Gulf of Mexico has officially been named Tropical Storm Cindy, the National Hurricane Center said in an update issued around 12:40 p.m. Tuesday (June 20). Cindy is the third named storm of the 2017 hurricane season, which forecasters predict could be more active than usual.
It's a solemn event; a rite of passage. This tradition by which professional scientists, news media, elected leaders, and, really, society at large agree that it's perfectly normal to anthropomorphize a potentially dangerous weather anomaly is a mystery that demands only the utmost seriousness of mind.




Do not taunt Cindy lest you invite her wrath, basically. That seems logical. Hard to believe so many TV weathermen are climate change deniers.

Also we should think about Cindy's feelings. This is her time to enjoy herself in her full glory before she smashes herself to death on one of our shores later this week.  Not all Cindys get this opportunity.  Some of us are so old now we remember the last Cindy to come this way in 2005. She wasn't actually given a name until a day or two after she was already gone.  I remember going in to work the next day and talking to everyone about how surprised we were at the strength of the wind the night before.  What we thought was going to be just a lot of rain from "Tropical Storm Cindy" had blown up into a hurricane overnight.  And then she was gone before we even knew her real name.

This year's Cindy isn't expected to do that either. As of right now it's projected to head off to Houston by, probably, Thursday. But I'm sitting here watching this radar loop and I don't see it making that westerly jog just yet. In any case, Southeast Louisiana is going to see a great deal of rain and coastal flooding even if the current track holds.
RAINFALL:  Cindy is expected to produce total rain accumulations of
6 to 9 inches with isolated maximum amounts of 12 inches over
southeastern Louisiana, southern Mississippi, southern Alabama, and
the Florida Panhandle through Thursday. Rainfall amounts of 3 to 5
inches with isolated maximum amounts of 6 inches can be expected
farther west across southwest Louisiana into southeast Texas through
Thursday.

STORM SURGE:  Inundation of 1 to 3 feet above ground level is
possible along the coast in portions of the Tropical Storm Warning
area.
So, you know, Carl and Mitch and the 500 people behind Mitch's podium are kinda right. But just because a storm is worth taking seriously doesn't mean we can't also laugh at it.  Certainly we can laugh at them, anyway.

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