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

West Nile Virus Emergency

Blame a warm winter, that is what the experts are telling us.

Dallas Texas is under a state of emergency due to an outbreak caused by mosquito bites suffered by the residents in the area.

Here is some basic information collected by the CDC;

There are different types of West Nile illness, the most serious can affect a person's nervous system and can be deadly.

Depending on the type of WNV infection, there is a chance that you may not see any symptoms.
The two types of  illnesses are West Nile fever and Severe West Nile Disease. The most serious case can cause West Nile Meningitis.  Important note, Five cases of Meningitis were discovered in Pennsylvania.

Please click on this link from the CDC, these facts can save a life ; http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/wnv_factsheet.htm

Here is the story done by PBS Newshour about the Dallas Emergency;

 I cannot stress the importance of taking safety measures to avoid Mosquito bites.   There has been known cases in our area in PA of people contracting NWV (West Nile Virus).  We need to take a good look and learn from what is going on in Dallas to prevent us from contracting this disease with no vaccine or cure.  Here is a Map of PA of outbreak areas; http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/USGS_frame.html

Did you know that they have been spraying areas of Montgomery County?

 Here are a list of stories from the Times Herald about West Nile in Montgomery County http://www.timesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/search?crit=west+nile&StartDate=19990101&EndDate=20120818&Searchcategory=%25&BuildNavigators=1&noblankcheck=0&submit.x=0&submit.y=0
 

Here is a local Video Courtesy of WPVI TV Channel 6 Philadelpa, PA 

More useful information for safety and  prevention from Tick and Mosquito bites, for those who venture outdoors;

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2010-119/pdfs/2010-119.pdf

Eye Witness Account of Hurricane Ernesto

About a week ago Hurricane Ernesto made landfall and we could only watch via maps, satellite images and text advisories.

Courtesy of NASA

Now thanks to Storm Chasers from iCyclone, you can see a first hand account of the storm.

 Watch "Hurricane ERNESTO on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula (2012)" on YouTube

Tropical Thunderstorm hits Horsham PA

During what seemed to be a normal day, we initially saw sunny skies on a typical warm day in August.  Well we all know we are not in the tropics, but looking outside at around 2pm yesterday, we all would have thought that we were in the middle of a Hurricane.

I was already aware that thunderstorms were getting closer to Montgomery County but the storms were closing in on our area a bit faster than I had expected. I was shopping for my nephews birthday in a well know toy store on Welsh  Rd in Horsham.  I was in the middle of the store and I could here thunderclaps in the distance, a few children in the store could be heard reacting to the sound of the thunder.  I started to notice lightning flashes through the small skylights and by the time I had picked up a few gifts I walked to the front of the store where I was able to see out the front entrance area and saw a torrential downpour out in the parking lot.  It appeared that we were having storm force winds of at least 50 MPH and after waiting a bit and looking at the radar on my phone, I decided to run out of the store to get to my car where I ended up drenched from head to toe.  The rain was being blown around as in sideways.  This event occurred around 2 PM and after I drove  home I found evidence of wind damage across the street from the former Willow Grove Naval Air Station.

Thanks to all my followers and weather fans,  here are some pictures taken yesterday.

Here is a copy of my storm report documented by The National Weather Service office in Mt. Holly, NJ.

08/04/2012 0210 PM

Horsham, Montgomery County.

Thunderstorm wind damage, reported by trained spotter.


            Multiple large tree branches down along Maple Ave in
            Horsham. Also... fence blown over along Route 611.