Fay, Gustav and Hanna

So, there I was thinking "this is a very boring, quiet so called hurricane season" when WHAM there are alphabetized storm systems coming at us from all directions. Clearly, a year in the Dept of Geography didn't impart me with enough meteorology knowledge to know that the peak season is 10 September (more activity on that day, statistically, than any other) and thus here we are in the thick of it. Tropical Storm Fay brought havoc to Haiti and the DR to the south of us, giving us a cloudy day with 3 huge downpours at the latter of the week before last. We then revisited Fay when we went to Miami for 2 days supply shopping - Fay had parked her large roundness off the coast and we watched the streets of Fort Lauderdale turn to rivers in a matter of moments as the rain came down. In her wake came Gustav who started up to the south of us, again, ravaging Haiti and the DR (is it any wonder that they are the 2 poorest nations in the region?!?!), not bothering us in the least but currently barreling his way towards Louisiana as a Cat. 3 hurricane. The Weather Channel - dedicated 24/7 to, erm, the weather, is a bit like car-crash TV at the moment with something approaching conspiracy theory high in the mix: Gustav is 'targeting' the Gulf States (erm, I might not have paid much attention in the Dept of Geog. but I'm sure Hurricanes as a rule don't target anyone in particular...). Last, but by no means least, allow me to introduce Hanna. She is currently a Tropical Storm that, briefly on Saturday morning, was forecast to became a Cat. 1 Hurricane. She is passing to the north of us right now, heading for the mid Bahamas. We woke this morning to cloudy skies, perceptibly cooler weather, and the rain started about lunchtime, although the wind is nothing like the gales that used to batter Portsmouth during the Autumn.

Tropical depressions in this part of the world generally start in the Atlantic and head in a westerly direction, often turning north as they approach the USA. The strongest winds in a tropical depression are in the quadrant to the right of the leading edge. So a westerly bound storm heading to the North of us (Hanna for example) causes comparatively less problems (the strongtest winds are away from us) than a storm passing to the south of us (Fay) where the strongest winds barrel along our southern shores. Of course how close the storm is (Hanna is a long way north) and the strength of the winds (a Cat. 5 hurricane passing 100 miles to the north of us would be a bit windy!) impact on the degree of weather we get here. If you see what I mean. Not sure that the preceeding explanation would be worthy of a Level 1 Geography Exam answer, but there you go! Visit the Wunderground.com website or the NOAA websites for more (accurate!) information. Tropical Depressions have numbers (Invest 93 for example...what does Invest mean?!?), Tropical Storms (next category up) get names - they are decided in advance and in alphabetical order (the first storm of the season - 1 June to 1 November get a name starting with A, the second a name with B and so on). Once the wind speed gets to about 74 mph we are in Hurricane territory starting with Cat. 1 through Cat 5 (wind speeds of 156+, gulp!). Quite what happens if more than 26 Tropical Storms develop in any one season I don't know....do they start back at A? Answers on a postcard to me, PO Box 198 Providenciales.

I was rather hoping to experience a hurricane....but maybe next time. Although, having said that, watching Weather Channel you kinda have to ask yourself just how much fun 150mph winds can be.....Western Cuba was battered by Gustav coming at them faster than a train last night. Doesn't really bear thinking about.

Oisin and I arrived back in the islands on Friday night after a long, long day. The Atlantic is one HUGE ocean which takes 9 hours to cross (to Miami), with St George (Bermuda) tantalisingly close for hours and hours whilst the plane seems to not make any forward progress. Maybe Bermuda is in fact floating in the ocean and constantly on the move? (note to self, maybe I should have paid more attention whilst in the Dept. of Geog....). Oisin, as per usual was a superb travelling companion: searching out the bags from a carousel, pushing one of the trolleys through Miami airport, cheerful and helpful all day (maybe the room service breakfast in the hotel at Heathrow did the trick!?).

Today he got to open his 'other' birthday presents - namely a Nintendo Wii which has proved a source of much delight and equal amounts of frustration as he gets used to the controls and how it works. His ability to master new equipment and solve problems is astounding, not to mention the considerable levels of patience he has for it. I tried to help him out with the Wall-E game (suitably eco-friendly, non-violent etc etc) and got frustrated in seconds. But....his concentration did allow me the chance to cut his hair to a more suitable length for school. He looked like a hippy when I collected him, and this morning, on the way to the supermarket he bemoaned the fact that his hair kept getting in his eyes with the windows open in the car!

I'm not looking forward to the first day back at school at all. I have a horrible feeling that we'll be back at square one in terms of settling him into a new class etc, and, having not completed the reading book that would have put him at the same level as his classmates, I'm not convinced that his reading ability is up to the demands of 2nd grade. But I guess I have all day tomorrow to worry that he'll end up repeating 1st grade after all.


That's all from the weather girl.