Tropical Depression Irma and Hurricane Jose: September 11, Update A

Ooof, what a storm! She’s not quite done yet but generally speaking, once the flooding subsides (soon), the over-riding issue is going to be the lack of power. Over 6 million are currently without power in Florida (comparable to Hurricane Frances in 2004) with an additional 1.5 million in Georgia. In that tropical heat, normally cheerful people get a little grumpy after 2-3 days without power. So don’t worry, it’s not you. Well, it is probably not you. ;-)  

Irma did lot of damage in the Keys with her first Florida landfall and I hear that highway 1 is impassable in some parts; the Keys are sealed off until further notice. Making landfall over Marco Island and south of Naples was, strangely enough, almost the best-case scenario for Florida (over the Everglades may have been a little better).  But she was a hurricane and there is damage across the entire state – along both coasts and up the middle.  

A lot of trees came down, taking with them power and gas lines (be careful out there!). Many trees, quite sensibly, avoided hitting any buildings or vehicles and should be commended for their discretionary falls. Others were definitely a bit more reckless. 

This is my good friends’ Chris and Peter's lovely tree yesterday…

and here's the lovely tree giving their garage a lovely hug this morning…

and here's the lovely tree giving their lovely neighbours home a lovely hug this morning…  

Oopsies! Luckily no-one was injured! Conveniently, Peter is the owner of Viable Lumber: “a tree recovery and recycling cooperative on a mission to salvage unusual, exotic, and beautiful hardwoods”. Viable Lumber takes fallen (or chopped down) trees and recycles them into the most beautiful tables, counter tops and other items, so I'm pretty sure he has this tree's next adventures already mapped out.

(the bar top in Wine Madonna, St. Pete - I think, grabbed from somewhere on the internet)

Tropical Depression Irma

She crossed Georgia today as a Tropical Storm, bringing more rain and power outages along with her, and is now about to enter Alabama as a Tropical Depression. The heavy rain has almost stopped but you can see from this satellite image that she covered quite a number of states:

Winds are now 35mph, central pressure is 998mb, which makes her a Tropical Depression. She is officially at 32.4N, 84.9W heading NW at 15mph.

Irma overlapped Harvey (remember him?!) - between these two storms, the damage to the US alone is currently estimated to be around $290 bn! 

It’s such a relief to be able to finally call her a Tropical Depression and I think she will soon be gone. So, with much joy and after a very long two weeks, I am going to say that this is my last update on Irma.

Hurricane Jose

Not quite time for a rest yet though... 

Hurricane Jose is at 27.1N, 69.5W heading NE at 6mph. His winds are now at 85mph, central pressure is 982mb. This officially makes him a mid-sized cat 1 storm (which is better the cat 4 he was a couple of days earlier). (cat 1 range: 74 – 95mph):

His bark is worse than his bite at the moment - the really strong convection you see in this infrared satellite image is scarier than his actual storm status. He may even be a Tropical Storm at this time because there isn’t any circulation (vorticity) in the upper troposphere anymore. He was under some pretty nice wind shear earlier and has just emerged from it, but he is forecast to loop back around and back into it:

I don’t quite know where he will end up yet, other than somewhere on the eastern seaboard (most likely), but the cone tomorrow will give us a better idea.  Although with all the wind shear, he may not be very strong by the time he gets himself untangled. It is too soon to say.

Toodle pip! 

J.  

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Twitter @JyovianStorm
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DISCLAIMER: These remarks are just what I think/see regarding tropical storms - not the opinion of any organization I represent. If you are making an evacuation decision, please heed your local emergency management and the National Hurricane Center's official forecast and the National Weather Service announcements. This is not an official forecast. If I "run away, run away" (Monty Python), I'll let you know. 

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