Be Informed and to Be Prepared

        I started this blog after thinking for years about how an event can affect you and your family.
 You may ask what event are you referring to?  That is a good question and the answer is, a man made or natural disaster.
There are many ways to categorize a disaster, in most cases the disaster that would affect South Eastern PA, would not be a major event because we normaly do not see strong weather.  This is an important topic, if our climate is changing then how do we know that our weather could change enough for us to see stronger weather than before.  Remember the earthquake in Virginia?  When did you feel a tremor like that before?

The_Weather_Vane was inspired by my personal interests to learn how and why our weather and man made accidents affect us.   I thought for awhile about what should I do different on the first anniversary of the Blog.  I initially could not think of anything, however I did learn from doing research this year is that the same message is heard after each storm that we hear about in the news.   "We did not know it was going to be that bad", this is the quote I just heard that a woman mentioned in the news in Northern Louisisana.  The area she is in was more affected than it was during Isaac than it was with Hurricane Katrina.  This is exactly why we need to be informed and to be prepared. For a local comparison, we need to remember how we were affected by T.S Irene.

For our first anniversary I wanted to use new tools to inform our public to help to be prepared for storms in our area.   I only ask everyone to not only read the information but to help spread the word to family, friends and co workers so that we do not see people perish like what happened last year during Tropical Storm Irene in PA.


I have joined a group with FEMA to collect more information about being prepared and I will make sure that on a regular basis this information is shared with my readers.  This information will be posted on several social Media sites, like Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter.  If you are not part of these social media sources then look for the box in the upper right side of the blog to subscribe to regular emails. "I will not spam you".

The_Weather_Vane and FEMA

Here is a brief view of some of the information that will be shared from FEMA and ready.gov

Get a Family Emergency Plan form
http://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/documents/files/Family_Emegency_Plan.pdf

Terrorist Hazards
http://www.ready.gov/terrorism

• Ensure you and your family know your surroundings and risk for specific weather.
• Have an emergency plan, and know what to do before severe weather strikes. Post your
plan in your home where family and friends who visit can see it.
• Find out from local government emergency management how you will be notified for
each kind of disasters and sign up for additional alerts through social media and local
news. Understand these local warning systems and signals and share your knowledge
with your coworkers, friends. Email these resources to your friends, post to your social
media account.

Hurricane Watch and Warnings

With Tropical Storm Isaac becoming a Hurricane soon, I thought I remind everyone about what a Hurricane Watch is and how it differs from a Hurricane Warning

What is the difference?


HURRICANE WATCH

When a Hurricane Watch is issued this means the storm is within a 48 Hour time frame.  You should already have a plan ready to take action and to be prepared if a warning is issued later.  Make sure to check the news frequently for any changes in the storms path, a storm could grow to be a bigger threat than initially anticipated.

HURRICANE WARNING

When a Hurricane Warning is issued, you can expect the storm track to have a better chance to hit the predicted area within 36 hours. You should be ready to take precautions and stock up with supplies.  Again check your local news for details if an emergency declaration or evacuations are issued by state or local authorities.

I want to thank the American Red Cross for providing important safety information to the public

If you are in a Hurricane prone area, such as the Gulf Coast or the South, or Southeast coast of the US, I suggest you read more information here;
http://www.redcross.org/prepare/disaster/hurricane

Anniversary of Irene for Montgomery County, PA

As Tropical Storm Isaac is currently hitting Key West Florida, I had a friend remind me that exactly one year ago today Irene was causing power outages and flooding throughout Southeastern PA.
the Mayor of Hatboro PA had to declare a weather emergency and even with this declaration there were many people still caught by surprise. 

Why is this you ask? 

We are prone to the simple fact that we rarely have bad weather and it is easy in our busy schedules to not pay attention to the news.   Hopefully with more people getting smartphones and have access to email, they have set up some kind of local  news or weather alert so that they receive critical information from many available news sources. Many business were affected by this storm due to power outages, downed trees and street flooding.

We are currently in an active time for the hurricane season, it is a good time to think about being prepared.

Here is my 2011 Weather Year in review Summary: http://climatedriver.blogspot.com/2011/12/looking-back-at-2011s-weather.html

 Hurricane Irene Wind Force Map

Why you should be prepared for a Hurricane

With Tropical Storm Isaac on the news and remembering Hurricane Irene, I wanted to share this video from NOAA that explains the the basics of a Hurricane threat.

Safety Tips

Tropical Storm to Hurricane Isaac

It is fascinating and scary at the same time to think that a tropical Low travels across the ocean from off the coast of Africa to then become a Tropical Storm with winds over 39 mph and with the very warm ocean water in the Caribbean it grows into a Hurricane.

The first image below shows its current projected track, several islands started to issue emergency warnings to it's citizens about this incoming storm.

There are some who say that making advanced statements on its path towards the US is silly.  I think it is better to be prepared than to wait and then have less time to evacuate or run out of supplies especially critical medication.   The Weather Channel last night stated that if it hits southern Florida, it could be with a force of at least a category 1 Hurricane.   A Category one hurricane is no joke, it still can bring deadly flooding rain and winds of 74 to 95 miles an hour.  The second image is to show a clear example of Hurricane track history.  The image does show a few storms that stray away from the US, but if you look closely, you can see that many of the storms did hit some part of the US.

The last and third image is of its future storm track.  Please note that today's forecast now states that this storm could bring up the 80 mph winds to Florida in less than 48 hours.

 So to put it simply if you live either in Southern Florida, the Gulf Coast, or the Southern US East coast to keep an EYE on this storm!

Many thanks to Weather Underground for a fantastic source of information 

wunderground.com