Severe Weather Check-in!

[Kobi]

Jose has weakened and gone east enough to spare us. Dont know how things are on Nantucket but its just minor wind and occasional rain here.

He is now doing a 360 loop off the coast over the next few days. So, expecting continuing crappy weather thru Saturday.

The good news is, the longer Jose lingers, the greater the chances it will pull Hurricane Maria away from the coast. After seeing the pictures from Puerto Rico, I dont want to mess with that one next week.

[Gemme]

A forecast model shows Maria hooking back to the left again. I hope not. Not good at all.

[Kobi]

Today is day 4 of Jose vacationing off the coast. They are saying he will stay around thru the weekend, gradually weakening along the way. I'm ignoring the graphics that show him looping and basically being in the same place Monday as he is right now.

Each day has brought more rain, higher winds, swelling waves, and, in general, relatively minor mayhem. Scattered power outages, a few trees down, many tree parts strewn about. After getting bopped a few times cleaning the tree parts from the driveway, today I will remember to wear a bike helmet when I shovel them up.

The ocean has been in turmoil with the water foaming, and reaching the entry platforms on both the ocean and bay sides. But, as the bad weather comes in waves with an hour or two of calm in between, there has not been any significant flooding. Havent seen anyone para-sailing or surfing. Nor have there been any seagulls, birds, or other critters out and about since Tuesday.

Hoping Maria will follow Jose's path. The ocean temps here are barely 60, with Jose stirring up the even cooler waters beneath the surface. Not warm enough to sustain a hurricane but still warm enough for a tropical storm.

Either way, it is better to be on the east side of a storm rather than the west. It will suck for us at the coast either way but will spare millions of others and billions in property damage.

Happy Fall!

[Kobi]

Hope all in the gulf area are ready for the next storm. Please, stay safe and check in when you can.

[Orema]

Here is a link that includes map and locations of the recent fire activity in Southern California.

http://www.fire.ca.gov/general/firemaps

[Chad]

Bump!

Check-in for our frozen friends in the northeast.

Stay safe friends.

[Kobi]

We were lucky with the storm that blew thru here on Thursday. Mostly rain. Minimal tree damage from the winds - the unexpected wind storm on Xmas morning had taken down most of the not healthy, not well rooted ones. Scattered and short lived power outages.

We did have a lot of flooding tho. Commerical St in Ptown was a river of water. Many cars got stuck trying to get thru the 6 foot "puddles" along the marsh roadways. Homes around the harbors had to be evacuated when the tides exceeded expectations.

The weirdest thing was the ocean/marsh iceberg chunks blocking the roads when the tides receded. Had to bring out the backhoes to clear those.

Thankfully the sun was out yesterday and today. Temps in the single digits during the days and below zero at night. With the exception of a few hours of heavy winds last night, it has been relatively calm.

The good news is the thaw begins on Sunday night, with temps next week in the 30's and 40's. Will be nice to be able to wear one layer of clothing rather than three!