It's kind of funny, in the "that's odd" sort of way, that the other day I asked a co-worker, "Is this what they call 'hurricane weather'?" I had just walked back inside and was straddling the air vent set into the floor of the Library lobby trying to evaporate some of the sweat that had more or less suddenly covered my body.
Ever since the second week of May the weather had turned to torpid, humid, and increasingly warm - meaning we hadn't broken 90 degrees yet but had butted up against it a number of times. I'd wake in the morning, shuffle out to start the computer and the coffee - in that order - and slowly become human.
With the coffee maker burbling away I'd make my way over to the computer and find the current weather report . . . huuuummmmm . . . 6 AM, 78 degrees, and 80 - 100% humidity. Great. Another morning sweating in the shower.
It's only gotten worse since then.
Earlier this week the local weather guy was talking about how we were in for yet another day - in an increasingly long set of days - of hot, humid weather. Seems there was a low pressure system parked in the Gulf of Mexico somewhere between the Yucatan and Cuba and it was pumping all that wonderfully rich, wet air off the Gulf onto us.
We had terrific fleets of cumulus clouds making their way north overhead. Occasionally one of them would dump a great deal of water on one spot of town or another but they never could unite and soak us all. That made for some interesting conversations about how one's day went.
"Oh, man, I was riding home and had to duck under a porte-cochère to get out of the storm!"
"What rain? It's been dry here for a week?"
"What??? You didn't get hit with that toad drowneder? I thought I was going to get washed into the river!"
"Bullshit! It didn't rain at all." Fortunately, someone else came in talking about the rain on the other side of town and we got back on track.
So . . . here I am, straddling the air vent set into the floor of the Library lobby asking about 'hurricane weather' and what it meant and we're discussing the topic but getting no consensus, right? I mean, local language and usage being what it is, 'hurricane weather' could mean anything and could change from house to house much less place to place. Off I go, a little drier but no more enlightened about the vernacular than before.
Yesterday I wake up, start the computer, get the coffee going, make my way back to the computer . . . all routine . . . open the weather underground site and . . . TROPICAL STORM ALERT . . .
What the . . . ?!?
Seems that low that had been sitting in the Gulf for the better part of a week doing nothing in particular other than pumping all that evaporated Gulf onto us suddenly decided to get up and go. And how . . . next thing I know, TS Andrea is packing 60 MPH sustained winds and is heading to Florida with the expectation that it's going to peak at 70 MPH winds just before hitting the coast.
We went from stewing in our our sweat to wondering where our hurricane bug-out bag was in less than 24 hours. SURPRISE!
The 2013 Hurricane Season is going to be a corker.
