…POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE KATRINA NOW MOVING
NORTH-NORTHWESTWARD TOWARD THE NORTHERN GULF COAST…
— From the National Weather Service “Hurricane KATRINA Public Advisory”
Yikes! These folks don’t use phrases like “potentially catastrohpic” lightly. I think I’m glad to be over 1,000 miles from this particular party.
Spend a while at the National Weather Service’s excellent site and you can learn way too much about Hurricane Katrina. That’s one serious storm in a nasty mood. Note in the image above, for example, she extends entirely across the Gulf from north to south, and damn near spans it east/west as well. You can spend way too long at the NWS site looking at the different kinds of satellite imagery (WeatherGirl and I rather enjoyed the infrared and water vapor loops from GOES Storm Floater 1) and reading wonderful prose like the quote above.
WeatherGirl and I were suggesting that this nasty hurricane season might be a sign of global climate change, but the National Weather Service ain’t buying it (and here). Their language, though, has that wishy-washy “We need more study” feel that we’ve been getting from Our Fearless Leader since taking office, so one has to wonder if the change in opinions (in the early 90’s they were pretty sure that there was a connection) may in part be a reflection of a change in who’s in the boss’s chair. I would hope not, but the current administration’s fairly violent anti-science streak makes one wonder.
And all this may put a crimp in the planned FYS convocation speech on Wednesday by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (seen here with a group of students slightly younger than the average UMM first year student). Nothing’s been said, and I’m sure we’ll have to wait and see what actually happens with the storm, but you could hardly blame her for deciding that staying home and dealing with a major state emergency took precedence. I hope that she somehow manages to make it because I was really looking forward to her presentation, and we obviously hope that the storm isn’t as devestating as the current predictions suggest it might be.
Fingers crossed.
As of Monday morning, 29 Aug, it’s official: The governor is staying home to help with the aftermath of the hurricane. We’re hoping to reschedule in the next few weeks, though.
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