Hurricane Melissa

So, it’s time to talk about other scary stuff, like Hurricane Melissa.

On YouTube I follow Mr. WeatherMan (Brian Shields) who has been very good at forecasting the weather. He is the only one to give advance warning far ahead of time, even when the tropical wave is still sitting over Africa.

I was watching the tropical wave way before my hometown weatherman pointed it out to use. I do believe it was not to scare us or to unduly agitate us before they knew that the storm would be coming to us.

If I remember correctly, Mr. WeatherMan was talking about some storm sitting brewing in the Atlantic, but he said that it was going to head north and not hit any land. Then he pointed to a tropical wave launching off of Africa and said, “Here’s a tropical wave just coming off of Africa, but I’m not worried about that one. I’m worried about this one back in Africa.”

That tropical wave sitting in Africa was to become Melissa.

Now how the heck could he tell which tropical wave would be troublesome?

Some hurricane facts

Now, I’m going to note some stuff that I have learned over the past two summers, more to embed firmly in my brain some things that drive hurricanes.

1. Surface temperature of the water has to be at least in the 80 degrees F before hurricanes can begin to form. This alone is not enough though.
2. Heat content, which is the depth at which the water is very warm, is important – probably more for the intensification of the storm. The deeper the warm water goes, the more fuel the hurricane has, and the faster the intensification. Again, this is not enough.
3. Wind shear plays a role in destroying the organization of the hurricane by blowing the top off the hurricane so that it can’t form a vertical cylinder of spinning air. Absence of wind shear means hurricanes have a better chance of forming.
4. Dust, especially those coming off of Africa, plays a role in preventing hurricanes to form.
5. And, I think maybe even dry air helps to prevent hurricanes from forming.

2025 season

This season was unusual in that up until Hurricane Melissa, all storms and hurricanes would come off of Africa and then at some point before reaching the Caribbean, would start heading north and then northeast.

None would hit land.

That was very nice.

The other unusual feature was that the storm was either a very small minor storm or it became a major hurricane categorized at Cat 4 or 5. There were no Cat 1, 2 or 3. So, if a storm started to really form and become a hurricane, it was a major destructive hurricane.

Thank goodness none reached land.

Until Mr. WeatherMan said he was worried about the tropical wave sitting in Africa.

Hurricane Melissa

This one hit Jamaica on October 28 as a Cat 5, becoming the strongest hurricane to hit Jamaica in recorded history. It hit at 185 mph.

Tropical storm and then hurricane Melissa was a slow-moving storm, which amplified its damage.

It brought days and days of devastating rain upon Haiti and Dominican Republic, although the news did not talk much about it. At one point someone mentioned Harvey level rains, since the rain bands kept sweeping over Haiti and DR for days, like maybe 7 days.

Or maybe it felt like 7 days. I can’t see any news providing that detail.

Now, Melissa is gone, leaving behind immense damage in the Caribbeans. The scenes coming out of Jamaica is dreadful.

Mr. WeatherMan was right about that little tropical wave back in Africa.

Some little controversy?

I have to bring this up because someone did a video, maybe the day before the hurricane was to hit, and said that there was nothing happening in Jamaica. She decried the use of the word “catastrophic” because it was fearmongering and could paralyze people. She did mention Mr. WeatherMan.

Unfortunately, he was right…it was catastrophic.

From what I could tell, I don’t think he was overdoing it. He was trying to be forceful and warn people to prepare in case the hurricane did hit Jamaica directly with intense levels.

Someone did a history of Jamaica and hurricanes, maybe it was Mr. WeatherMan. It appears that Jamaica gets hit by a major hurricane every 37 years: Hurricane Gilbert as Cat 4 in 1988 and Hurricane Charlie as Cat 3 in 1951.

So direct hits are uncommon for people in Jamaica. They mainly get brushes from the hurricanes which are nothing to sneeze at.

Anyway, I don’t think he was fearmongering, but it must be difficult to deliver one’s forecasts and warnings in a forceful but measured way in order to get people to take action. You don’t want to scare people too much, but you want them to make preparations.

Was it enough? I don’t know…there is only so much one can do in the face of a Cat 5 hurricane.

November

So, I have one more month to worry about the hurricane season, although, historically, almost no hurricanes hit my state. Any hurricanes entering the Gulf tend to veer to the east and possibly hitting Florida.

What changes in November?

The cold fronts. The cold fronts pass by and pick up the storm/hurricane and drive them north and east.

That cold front that came by on Tuesday or Wednesday was great for me but not so great for Jamaica because Hurricane Melissa was going west, making a direct bid for the gulf when the front passed by. The front apparently tugged the hurricane to turn it north towards Jamaica.

So, I just need to keep apprised of what is going on in the Caribbean but I don’t have to worry as much.

Besides, I have other thing to worry about.

Other scary news

So, today SNAP runs out, and healthcare premiums increase (or maybe we learn about the increases). Premiums are rising rather dramatically, like doubled or tripled. Medicaid/Medicare may stop too.

That is on top of groceries going up.

On top of farmers starting to go into bankruptcy.

Why is this scary? It impacts the people’s mood. I could be reading too much into this, but the people’s mood appears to be getting darker.

I think about that guy who killed the United Healthcare president and about the people kind of cheering that.

I think about those young men attempting to assassinate politicians.

There appears to be a lot of anger out there and it’s worrisome.

And all the news about layoffs is not helping.