With apologies to Jimmy Buffett: Trying to reason with hurricane season

What time is it, boys and girls? How the hell should I know. Shut up you old fart! Well, I don’t know if my topic will get any interest. If I were to form a club right now it might be the Pessimists Club. But I would be worried that no one would show up. Same thing with an Apathy Club. I don’t know if anyone would care to join.

To answer my own question, it’s hurricane season. Now the hurricane season officially starts on June 1. But it would be quite a chore trying to explain that to a hurricane breathing down your neck on Memorial Day. The National Hurricane Center is looking at system in the Atlantic that could form into something tropical or sub-tropical during the next few days to northeast of the Bahamas. If something did form it could be carried by steering winds toward areas in northern Florida to the Carolinas.

The chance of development into a tropical or sub-tropical system is about 30 percent, says the NHC. That isn’t a really huge chance. Although having slept through Hurricane Humberto, the Category 1 storm that intensified faster than any other tropical system on record, I found that betting on hurricanes are a losing proposition. I was really kind of bummed I slept through that 2007 storm. Though I am fortunate the storm was much less worse that Rita in 2005 and Ike in 2008.

I pay much more attention these days when hurricane season comes around, or before if there is a developing storm out there. I’m not paranoid. Rather, as folks who are concerned of  mugging or other violent acts, I am aware of my surroundings. Anyone in the path of a hurricane needs to take heed. Sure, one might not get strong winds and certainly those far from the coast need not worry about storm surge.  But there are more problems. These tropical systems can cause extreme flooding for anyone in the path of the storm remnants. Depending on the climate, a concern of tropical and post-tropical systems can be tornadoes.

I suppose if you live in areas where it seldom rains, hurricanes should not be a worry. But these storms, whether called tornado or cyclone or typhoon or whatever, these are forces of nature. And until man learns to completely control the weather — and let’s hope like hell  that doesn’t happen — tropical systems will always remain something to reckon with and respect.