Hurricane Irma
 

https://weather.com/storms/hurricane...ward-islands-0

Storm is now a Cat. 5 and Florida is under a state of emergency. Current models have it reaching Florida as a Cat. 4 and is unknown if it'll turn north off the east coast or the west coast of the state.

Poor Florida. I suppose when you're a large peninsula that sticks out like a sore thumb down that south, it's to be expected sometimes, but one that strong...? :ohwell:

For their sake, I hope it turns sooner, only skirts the coast, and they end up on the "safer" side of it. Comparatively speaking of what the worst side (north/east) could do if it hits from the gulf side instead. :tsad: (But then at the same time, where does it go after that.)

I trust FL's got this though, they know the drill and doubt most will just sit in place like Texas unfortunately did. Now to just check in on a friend though and see what her plans with her husband and handful of pets is...

Horrible to hear this might hit Florida. Looks like hurricane season is starting off with a bang.

Irma's going to hit both the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico at Category 5 levels.

From the National Weather Service as of 3 hours ago:
Stay safe, everyone.

All I know is that I have a beach house rented next week in Florida so Irma better stay the f&ck out of the Gulf. If it goes in the Gulf and its a Cat 5 it won't even matter if I stay home. I'll still have a hurricane to deal with.

Florida is no stranger with Hurricanes, you been through one, you been through them all.

I know that, but it's still not a good thing that they have to deal with.

That line of thinking is silly, especially considering how they dont experience the same type of hurricane every time.

Add in the fact that it has been, I believe, quite a while since FL has had a major hurricane make landfall, right? You could have a lot of newcomers to the state in that time that haven't seen more than a minor one or tropical storms.

Sure there have been some near misses, like Matthew last year, but skirting the coast to the east is nothing in comparison to a landfall or a bad one on the Gulf side.

Irene (who I keep trying to mistake Irma's name for!) did that to us here. Being on the better side of that thing I was surprised how little impact there was. Being on the "bad" side of Isabel, however, weakened to a TS, in '03 was worse for us, even at the distance it was. Fingers crossed that Irma turns sooner and spares FL the same. Don't want to think about hit hitting anyone else if that happens, but hopefully it might weaken by then.

Yeah, Hurricane Andrew was the last major one they had in 1992 and I doubt a lot of people have forgotten that horrific storm. I would hate for something like this to happen again.

Really, as was said, its not that people who went through it forget, its that 1 million or so people have moved to Florida since Andrew. Those people have no Idea what they're in for.

If you have been through a big one, you don't forget. Mine was Ivan. It made me paranoid about any hurricane that even LOOKS like it might come towards me.

2 more hurricanes are coming. Katia and Jose.

These are the end times, I tell you.

Eh, Katia looks to be a short lived TS affecting Mexico only. (edit: Never mind, guess I saw 'old' info, Katia became a hurricane. That fast. Wtf.) Was surprised to just see that one on a radar map thing I just looked at.

End times, no. Common busy part of the season, yes. Shame Irma's projected path doesn't seem to have shifted much from this morning. :ohwell: Just a little more to the east.

And Jose is now a hurricane, assumed to become major as well. Lovely. And now that they've put a projected path on that one... Are they spreading out so that everyone can have one? (Turn out to sea, jackass...and drag your big sister off with you.)

I'm ready for Hurricane Irma.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DJEIm1cWsAE6mJ9.jpg:small

She's bringing the big guns, alright.

Ivan, Irma, Isabel, Irene... I-storms are such hurricane I-holes. :tmad:

I actually wanted to make a joke like that but was afraid people would take it the wrong way. :P

Hurricanes seem to usually have female names or is it just me?

Hurricane names alternate male and female. We've just gotten a run of fairly strong female ones lately.

This sounds like a dumb question, but why do they name hurricanes? Do they do that for tornados and other natural disasters as well?

No. I'm not sure why they name them other than that it is easier than referring to "the second F3 hurricane in the Atlantic of the 2017 season". People would not remember which one it is. So they just give them names. Mention Sandy or Katrina though and they know EXACTLY which one it is!

They started naming them for simplicity of plotting and because people seem to pay attention when they are named. They used to name them by where they did damage, but then you may have had one storm with multiple names and they would have had no idea it was the same storm.

In the 30's or 40's the started being able to track them and decided to name them. The first batch of named hurricanes were named with the military alphabet. (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, etc).

Then they did all female names alphabetically.

Then they changed to alternating male and female names alphabetically. They have six or seven lists that they run through each year. This year happens to be the same list from the year Katrina hit. When a storm is particularly deadly or costly they retire names.

Like the year Katrina hit, if they run through all the names on a list for a certian year, they go to the Greek alphabet.

....weather nerd