Friday, September 12, 2008

Ike...Yikes!!


The big weather story this week is Hurricane Ike.After laying waste to Cuba it is now on it’s way to Texas and expected to make landfall near Houston.They are expecting a large storm surge from this one.For those interested,you can listen to a Houston radio station at http://www.kilt.com/.Warning:it’s a country music station.I have also added a storm tracker to the weather site.It's worth a look and has lots of features.Check it out and let me know what you think.

Our weather has been rather hum-drum this week.It is basically typical late summer weather here.The overnight temps have actually dipped into the single digits…around 7°C on Wed and Thurs and the daytime temps have been reaching into the 20s.There is very low humidity so it’s great for getting the yard ready for winter…….it’s not that far away!!!

Watch our weather as it happens via our cam(s).Click here.
Note: The temps shown in the forecast block in this blog are reported from the nearest local weather station located at Western Head which is very near the ocean. The temps there are quite different than here usually.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

The Last Of Hanna


Hanna was basically a non-event here.We had a slight amount of wind and rain and it began to clear in the early afternoon.By mid-afternoon we were enjoying mostly clear skies and temps in the upper 20s.Humidity levels remained high,near 80%,making it rather uncomfortable.
This evening it has remained mild with temps holding at 20° and it is almost completely calm.The upcoming week is looking good with only a slight possibility of rain on Wednesday and temps expected in the lower 20s.
Hurricane Ike,currently in the Caribbean,will have no effect on our area and is on a track towards Texas and Louisiana.It has already done a fair bit of damage in Haiti and will soon be over Cuba.

HAVANA (AFP) - Hurricane Ike took aim at Cuba Sunday after leaving 20 people dead in Haiti, where fatalities from a succession of powerful storms in the past few weeks now tops 600.

Ike was downgraded Sunday from a Category Four hurricane to a still potentially devastating Category Three, as Cuba evacuated hundreds of thousands in a frantic bid to evade the storm's fury.
Officials in Haiti meanwhile, continued aid operations in the flood-stricken town of Gonaives, which has borne the brunt of recent flooding and seen untold misery and destruction .
Ike plowed across the low-lying Turks and Caicos overnight as a powerful Category Four storm, causing some injuries and extensive damage on the British territory and tourist haven, Bahamas radio reported.
The hurricane then raked the southeastern Bahamian island of Great Inagua, toppling trees, blowing off roofs, causing an island-wide power failure and forcing many of its one thousand residents to seek refuge in shelters, a resident told AFP by telephone.
With winds decreasing slightly to 120 miles (195 kilometers) per hour, the storm was forecast to roar ashore in eastern Cuba Sunday night as a Category Three "major hurricane" on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.
But the immediate concern was its effect on Haiti , where a humanitarian crisis was unfolding after flooding from Ike and previous storms Hanna and Gustav left around 600 people dead and thousands in desperate need of food, clean water and shelter.
With winds near 215 kilometers (135 miles) per hour, the storm's outer bands lashed Haiti's vulnerable northwest coast with torrential rain.
Hundreds of bodies were found in flood-prone Gonaives, a town of 350,000 in northwestern Haiti, after a five-meter (16-foot) wall of water and mud engulfed much of the town. The storm followed on the heels of Hanna, last week's massive storm.
United Nations peacekeepers on Saturday evacuated several thousand residents from Gonaives, a local official said, but thousands more are still awaiting relief.
Some 650,000 Haitians have been affected by the flooding, including 300,000 children, and the task of delivering crucial aid has been complicated by dismal transport conditions, according to UNICEF.
Officials said 200,000 people have been without food and clean water, many for four days.
At least 20 people were found dead Sunday in Cabaret, 13 of them children, when a torrent of muddy water raged through the village, the region's parliamentarian said.
"What has happened here is unimaginable," deputy Pierre-Gerome Valcine told AFP from Cabaret, 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of the capital Port-Au-Prince.
"Many homes were destroyed in Cabaret, and we have seen some bodies of children in the water," added a journalist for UN radio who spent the night on the roof of his house.
Massive flooding over the past week in the poorest country in the Americas has triggered a humanitarian crisis that was worsening by the day -- and prompted prayers from Pope Benedict XVI.
"I want to remember the dear population of Haiti, greatly distressed in recent days by passing hurricanes," Benedict told pilgrims on the Italian island of Sardinia.
Continuing stormy weather hampered relief efforts Sunday, when heavy rains led to the collapse of a key bridge which severed the only viable land route to Gonaives.
The bridge gave way overnight at the town of Mirebalais in central Haiti, forcing three trucks loaded with emergency supplies and bound for Saint-Marc, where thousands of desperate flood refugees from Gonaives were crowding into shelters, to turn back, according to a World Food Programme official.
Many bridges in other areas of Haiti have also collapsed, homes have been washed away and crops ravaged.
Meanwhile, more than 600,000 people in Cuba began evacuations Sunday ahead of the Ike's arrival, including 9,210 foreign tourists who were moved out of Varadero, a tourism mecca about 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Havana.
Cuban Vice President Jose Ramon Machado, meeting with authorities in Holguin, urged people to "carry out the evacuation in an orderly and speedy fashion," and to take steps to "avoid the loss of life."
Ike was expected to eventually careen past Florida into the Gulf of Mexico and sweep toward Louisiana and the storm-battered city of New Orleans as early as Tuesday.



Watch our weather as it happens via our cam(s).Click here.
Note: The temps shown in the forecast block in this blog are reported from the nearest local weather station located at Western Head which is very near the ocean. The temps there are quite different than here usually.

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Special weather statement in effect for: Queens County Potential storm over the Maritimes at anytime this Fall and Winter . A storm will lik...