Gustav's Tropical Storm Watch

A tropical storm watch has been issued for the Lower Keys, from the Seven Mile Bridge to the Dry Tortugas, which means storm conditions are possible within 36 hours. It sounds dire for Key West but this means nothing more than a wet and windy Labor Day weekend. That sucks for me as I happen to be off this weekend, and it sucks for tourism as we could use lots of free spending visitors to fill this low season lull. Hurricane Gustav actually poses a terrible threat to the Gulf of Mexico, closing down oil rigs which should lead to an increase in gas prices so that won't do our holiday weekend much good either. New Orleans could be a whole other world of hurt. Tropical Storm Hanna in the Atlantic is being weird and feeble which is good for Florida still recovering from major flooding. However there is another potential wave heading our way from the coast of Africa. I don't see anything too serious for us for the next week or so.

Goodbye Gustav

Well, that was easy. Checking the national Hurricane Center we find a new path for Hurricane Gustav currently pillaging the Greater Antilles and now apparently projected to roll along Cuba's south coast doing them endless harm and eventually popping out into the Gulf of Mexico. All of which is bad for them and good for us. That's the thing about hurricane season, with which one cannot reason as the singer/songwriter noted, and one finds oneself hoping not to get hit at the expense of some other poor unfortunate. I'm sure the people in Haiti aren't enjoying it and even though Cuba has excellent civil defense and evacuation procedures it doesn't do Cubans any good to get drowned. It's looking good on this storm remembering Gustav is still traveling and there are more orange splotches of disturbed weather in the Atlantic so there will probably be plenty more to come. My link Hurricane Center takes you right there if you care to do your own hurricane prediction.

Hello Gustav

September is the height of hurricane season in the Northern hemisphere and thus it comes as no surprise that Tropical Storm Gustav is drenching Hispaniola and aiming to hit Cuba next with heavy winds and rains. Maybe Florida will get hit by next weekend which puts me in mind of a bumper sticker that made the rounds in the 2004/2005 seasons of endless parades of hurricanes: Another weekend, Another hurricane.

.

It's way too early to know what is going to happen or where Gustav is going to head, so for now we'll bag the speculation and get on with enjoying the Keys. Later, much later I'll drag those bloody hurricane shutters out, again, and stuff everything in the shed, again, and debate the merits of evacuation, again.

Another summer, another hurricane season.