Stormy weather…

As I write this, Hurricane Helene is whipping her frothy tentacles over the Gulf coast, pounding northwest Florida with brutal winds and already spewing a whole bunch of rain on that state’s loam and sand.

It’s only been barely more than a month since we felt the sting of the tropics – you remember Debby - and local and national weather forecasters are pumped, pirouetting in front of scores of blue screens, arms flailing to show fronts and strands and paths in their gleeful meteorological ballets.

How much rain we get in the Carolinas depends on what station you tune in. A couple of local TV weather pundits peg my neighborhood’s tally somewhere between two and four inches, depending on which computerized National Weather Service track they like the best, while others are hedging their bets a little.

At least one nearby station plugs itself somewhere in the middle.

All of ‘em run their frequent and annoying little ‘crawlers’ across the TV screen in a noxious line that always seems to block out some vital visual of the program you’re watching, and by the time it’s over you’ll have learned way more about the weather system than you wanted to know.

The hurricane season is at its peak right now in the States, and we can only hope it won’t conclude as badly as it did in not-so-long-ago years when the likes of Matthew and Florence bullied their way through the Carolinas, killing too many people and wreaking havoc on property to the tune of billions of dollars in some of the worst storms since Hugo.

To this day, there are still people struggling to recover from floods spawned way back then, and Debby’s immersions a few weeks ago made their situation even worse.

It seems as though Mother Nature is exacting larger tolls with each passing year, doesn’t it?

Is it because of the global warming/climate change phenomenon? Probably, though there are those who’ll say no despite figures to the contrary.

I suppose one of the the best things about it is that it’s ‘primo’ reading and writing weather, as long as the power doesn’t go out (which has happened in my neighborhood a half-dozen times so far this year).

After Debby I made darn sure I had a good electric lantern and plenty of candles on hand.

At any rate, I hope the majority of you guys get through it unscathed.

I can still remember very well what Hugo did to my house and neighborhood now 35 years ago.

Stay safe. Stay dry.

We’ll see you on the other side.