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Irma's Coming!

Meadmaker said:
Is it too late to buy orange juice futures? Irma seems to be going right up through central Florida, which is where I believe the orange groves are, and I doubt orange trees are as resistant to wind damage as the palms that are shown bending with the wind. With tropical storm force winds covering the entire state, and hurricane force winds in much of the center, I would have to believe there will be a lot of damage.

But.....they do grow the things in Florida. They have to be at least somewhat resilient. It's not like hurricanes haven't gone through before. They just don't normally cover the entire state.


ETA: Yes, OJ futures have spiked, although only 10% or so, but that is apparently very large.
https://slate.com/business/2017/09/...-irma-damage-frozen-orange-juice-futures.html
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"Well, this is it. The last bastion of pure capitalism left on Earth. Here in New York, they trade everything: gold, silver, platinum, heating oil, propane, cocoa & sugar, and -of course- Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice."
 
Power is still on here, though the winds are only just starting to hammer us. I'm going to try and sleep some. Hard with stuff hitting the house occasionally, and the wind blowing so loudly.

Regarding orange trees, they are pretty hardy things. They have a good root base and don't grow really tall (and therefore top heavy). The fruit is all small and green, so it won't all fall off from the winds. I have both a mature sour orange tree, a mature grapefruit tree, and a young tangerine tree.
 
MSNBC was going on (and on and on...) last night about how the reduced storm surge was a blessing, but might cause some to question the NHC's forecasting abilities and doubt evacuation orders in future storms. My Verizon FIOS doesn't carry The Weather Channel, or we would have watched that instead.
 
This morning another Weather Channel guy was standing in Jacksonville. The wind was 31 mph with gusts to 42 in Jacksonville, according to the data on the screen. He was going on and on about how bad it was there, as if he were standing in the middle of the end of the world.

I have no doubt that there was a lot of damage from Irma, but I hope I am right and it was far less than expected.
 
foophil said:
Power is still on here, though the winds are only just starting to hammer us. I'm going to try and sleep some. Hard with stuff hitting the house occasionally, and the wind blowing so loudly.

Regarding orange trees, they are pretty hardy things. They have a good root base and don't grow really tall (and therefore top heavy). The fruit is all small and green, so it won't all fall off from the winds. I have both a mature sour orange tree, a mature grapefruit tree, and a young tangerine tree.
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I lost power a few times last night but it came back on. Haven't been out to survey the damage yet though.
 
LTC8K6 said:
This morning another Weather Channel guy was standing in Jacksonville. The wind was 31 mph with gusts to 42 in Jacksonville, according to the data on the screen. He was going on and on about how bad it was there, as if he were standing in the middle of the end of the world.

I have no doubt that there was a lot of damage from Irma, but I hope I am right and it was far less than expected.
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Yes, i think the damage is FAR FAR less, in Florida, than the news reporters were hoping for.

The main question is, that it seemed government pulled out all the stops to get everyone to leave for this storm, THE BIGGEST STORM EVER, what are they going to do when that next Category 3 storm makes a direct hit? No one is going to leave for a little storm like that.

Oh and ThanksTrump, for saving Florida by using that weather technology to reduce it to 120mph and Cat 3 before it hit.


Is there a James Randi Challenge for weather predictions? I pretty much nailed this one earlier in the thread.
 
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Drewbot said:
Yes, i think the damage is FAR FAR less, in Florida, than the news reporters were hoping for.

The main question is, that it seemed government pulled out all the stops to get everyone to leave for this storm, THE BIGGEST STORM EVER, what are they going to do when that next Category 3 storm makes a direct hit? No one is going to leave for a little storm like that.

Oh and ThanksTrump, for saving Florida by using that weather technology to reduce it to 120mph and Cat 3 before it hit.


Is there a James Randi Challenge for weather predictions? I pretty much nailed this one earlier in the thread.
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Well, it was a Cat 4 at US landfall, actually. I didn't know that they counted the keys as landfall, but they do. Thus this is the first time on record that two Cat 4 hurricanes hit the US in one year.
 
I find it amazing that power crews were able to work in those conditions and restore people's power. My daughter and her family's power went off Saturday afternoon but was restored by evening. Unfortunately it went off again Sunday morning, and the last I heard, was still off on Sunday evening. It's very hot and humid in south Florida. Already 81 degrees at 8AM in Miami and expected to reach 90.

I read on another message board that a long convoy of utility trucks was spotted on I95 heading south from the Northeast so they will be getting plenty of help in the days ahead.
 
No serious damage to our home near Orlando. But, there is no doubt that we had a hurricane come through. We have limbs and downed trees throughout our yard. A neighbor's utility lines are down along one of our fences. Our road is covered with trees and limbs. I didn't see any downed power lines in the road, but I did see twisted and dangling lines. We probably won't have power restored for days.
 
We'll need to clear the roads in my subdivision before anyone can get out in a car. The main road to my south is blocked by flooding.
 
Drewbot said:
Yes, i think the damage is FAR FAR less, in Florida, than the news reporters were hoping for.

The main question is, that it seemed government pulled out all the stops to get everyone to leave for this storm, THE BIGGEST STORM EVER, what are they going to do when that next Category 3 storm makes a direct hit? No one is going to leave for a little storm like that.

Oh and ThanksTrump, for saving Florida by using that weather technology to reduce it to 120mph and Cat 3 before it hit.


Is there a James Randi Challenge for weather predictions? I pretty much nailed this one earlier in the thread.
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Something that isn't obvious from the news reporting is that Cuba took the hardest hit, and softened it up a bit for us Americans. That slight miss on the westward track of the storm both reduced the winds and reduced the size of the population center that took the big hit.
 
On weather related message boards the storm striking Cuba -- traveling over land -- reducing Irma's intensity has been discussed. The projected track was also off about 25 miles from the actual track and that made a huge difference, especially for South Florida.
 
Reports of damage along the east coast of Florida sound worse than we get from storms that actually hit the east coast. Jacksonville had record storm surge and it is pretty much as far from where Irma made landfall on the Florida peninsula as you can get and still be in Florida.
 
We've gone from hoping we'll still have a house to hoping we still have a pool cage.
 
Modified said:
We've gone from hoping we'll still have a house to hoping we still have a pool cage.
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Craig4 said:
There was a lot of damage done to the screen on my pool cage by the debris.
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I just hope neither of your pools escaped. They can be difficult to recapture, especially since most of them aren't trained to come on command.

(I know there are some people who deliberately let their pools run free, but keeping them caged is actually more humane, and better for the surrounding wildlife too.)
 
Myriad said:
I just hope neither of your pools escaped. They can be difficult to recapture, especially since most of them aren't trained to come on command.

(I know there are some people who deliberately let their pools run free, but keeping them caged is actually more humane, and better for the surrounding wildlife too.)
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And no matter what the so-called "responsible" pool owners say they are deadly!
 
Myriad said:
I just hope neither of your pools escaped. They can be difficult to recapture, especially since most of them aren't trained to come on command.
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See, that's the real problem. Not pools that drown children, but pool owners who don't train their pools properly.

You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
 
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