10:48 AM as I type. Above the view out our bedroom window. Light rain is falling.
I have learned that the USGS has a rain gauge on Skull Creek. I have also learned that USGS stands for United States Geological Survey which is part of the Department of the Interior. As of 10 AM their Skull Creek gauge has measured just under 8” of rain in the past 24 hours.
This morning’s update from the National Hurricane Center now puts us in the potential rain range of 8”-12”. Quite a contrast from yesterday and further affirmation of my experience that all over the world meteorological services give worst case forecasts rather than most accurate ones in the quite correct belief that if they say something severe is going to happen and it doesn’t, no one will care, but if something severe happens that they have not forecast they will provoke the now ever popular outrage.
The National Weather Service site at Hilton Head Airport three miles from our condo reported wind at 9:50 AM this morning of 14 mph with gusts to 28 mph and light rain. The numbers are similar for all last night, although sometimes the rain is described as heavy and with thunderstorms.
Excitement came at 10:10 PM when Carol and I who had just fallen asleep were awakened by an emergency weather statement preceded by a siren on my iPhone. A possible tornado had been sighted on radar on the ocean side of the island about four miles away. We were advised to seek safe shelter immediately. There is no safe shelter in this building. The alert extended until 10:45. We waited fatalistically and then went back to sleep. I have not been able to find this morning that a tornado actually existed. However, a nine foot alligator was found swimming on a local surface street by a driver who almost ran over him and naturally paused to take a photo.
You may have seen a news item about two fools rescued from a 34’ sailboat off the west coast of Florida during this storm. Here is a link;
If you read the article you will learn that with usual journalistic insight they needed rescuing because “they lost their sail”. In the photo the boat is intact, floating on her lines, and has a jib. The mainsail looks damaged.
What they were doing out there is beyond explanation other than that they are fools. This storm has been forecast and followed for days. It has been about where expected when expected. I have been in such conditions and worse more times than I can recall, but always they occurred after I had already been at sea for weeks or months. No reasonable seaman would have tried to sail from Key West to Tarpon Springs last weekend. They really didn’t deserve to be rescued.
Also, what looks like 5 5 gallon jugs of diesel lashed to the rail.
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