This week has been...and will continue to be...all about Hurricane Dorian as it first passed through as a strong tropical storm through the Windward Islands and then veered more northerly just east of Puerto Rico as it attained hurricane strength. Although its projected strength upon mainland U.S. landfall has changed a lot...from Tuesday morning to 24 hours later it jumped from 70 to 115 mph sustained winds and now it is at 125...the dreaded red "cone of probability" has consistently been the entire Florida peninsula, with the most likely area of its eye's landing being the central part of the state. Talk about ruining a perfectly good holiday, Labor Day: its landfall is forecast to take place that Monday. As for Gainesville, I don't think we've yet experienced hurricane-force winds since I moved here in 1977, although Irma in 2017 and Frances and Jeanne in 2004 produced sustained tropical storm levels. Hopefully, the storm will quickly pass on through, while being inland in the middle of the peninsula helps us with the winds, which if it strikes us will have diminished a bit from the level it was at on the shore...but now is the time to stock up and make preparations. And there are plenty more days till Monday for the Weather Channel to "up" its predicted intensity. Wonder which beaches the celebrity meteorologists will be assigned to...
Now it's 11 am and the new forecast has Dorian reaching maximum sustained winds of 130 mph at landfall. Maybe I should just stop watching the Weather Channel, sigh...
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