Dorian Brings Much-Needed Fresh Air to Marion County

The forecast for Hurricane Dorian is looking so good, there is not much point in talking about it. The odds of problems here are dropping off to the point where I should start writing about other things.

Again, never watch the news when hurricanes approach. They will always lie and exaggerate, in order to benefit themselves. Always go to the Internet and look at sources as close to the actual data as possible.

This morning, it occurred to me that Bryan Norcross may be a major reason why TV heads shriek and whimper during hurricane season. Back in ’92, Andrew hit Miami, and afterward, Norcross was the main source of information for many people in the area. He worked as a meteorologist at Miami’s WTVJ. I don’t recall exactly what happened, but I seem to have a dim memory of other channels being knocked off the air.

Before Norcross, WTVJ’s main weather personality was Bob Weaver, a chatty, overweight New Yorker who was more than 20 years older. Norcross was young and thin, and the ladies liked him, so my guess is that Norcross was hired to be a glamour boy. Norcross supposedly didn’t like the ladies back, if you know what I mean. That piece of information popped up long after Andrew.

A lot of weathermen are gay. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because it’s the most flamboyant position in many newsrooms. Weathermen are generally entertainers.

When Andrew hit and people were desperate for news, Norcross took the throne and became South Florida’s premier hurricane guru. He was adored. He was in the kind of situation in which women you have never met mail you their underwear. Media outlets interviewed him. One publication featured a photo of him on the beach in a Speedo.

The stories about his orientation broke a lot of hearts.

After Andrew, his career cooled off a lot, and it never again attained its post-Andrew heights, but for a while, he was big news all over America.

The rise of Bryan Norcross made it clear that hurricanes could make people considerably more famous and, potentially, wealthy. I’m sure other TV personalities noticed. Maybe that partially explains their undignified antics.

To get back to the storm, the projected path is firming up, and it is expected to turn north very soon and head for the general area of South Carolina. The storm is weakening. The top winds have dropped 30 mph, into the Category 4 region. Hurricane-speed winds only extend out 25 miles from the center, so there is a good chance that Florida won’t get them.

The Bahamas really got whacked. It’s astounding. The storm hit Grand Bahama as a 5, and then it just sat there. It’s bad to get hit by a storm at all, but at least they usually move on quickly. I can’t imagine spending an entire day in hurricane winds, especially with the flooding the Bahamas are getting.

The up side is that the Bahamas are sparsely inhabited. The population of Grand Bahama is under 30,000 people.

I have been praying for God to turn the storm north and away from land, and I feel very strong faith for it. I would like to see it move off the Bahamas so the people can get some relief.

I think people forget that hurricanes weaken as they go north. Also, my guess is that the winds generally slow down as storms get wider, due to the conservation of angular momentum. I don’t really know. Maybe Google can tell me.

Wow. Those search results look really boring. Never mind.

Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but the forecast for my area is considerably nicer than it would have been without a hurricane. July and August were very, very unpleasant for outdoor activities, but now we are expected to have strong breezes and considerable cloud cover for a while. I was able to work in my workshop during the last two days without coming back in completely soaked in sweat, and Dorian will extend that benefit and make it easier to wait for the pleasant days of October.

It should be breezy enough to make outdoor work somewhat difficult, but it will probably be very nice inside the workshop with the doors partially opened.

If I were going to stay here, I would get a propane generator and build a new shop. As it is, I’m thrilled to have several days of relatively pleasant weather, with 7 months of cool weather to follow not long after.

I spent over $40 on hurricane supplies. Don’t I feel silly.