Potential Hurricane Helene Slated to Hit Thursday Evening

Yes, recently this blog's output has been a bit porous, with me often skipping days.  Today, though, I thought it timely to discuss what is brewing weather-wise out in the western Caribbean: Potential Tropical Cyclone Nine, or PTC-9.  Now all the head honchos in the weather bureaus have it forecast to became Hurricane Helene and become a strong one before crashing into Florida's Big Bend area on Thursday evening before heading on to blanket Georgia.  The Governor has already had his hurricane prep press conference, and people in the affected areas...which extend far down the Florida Gulf Coast and inland to places like my Gainesville...to stock up on necessary items and prepare for power outages.  The maximum sustained winds at this Tuesday morning writing are still at sub-tropical storm force, so calling it a "potential tropical cyclone" is still technically applicable.  But it's no service to the general public to delay...like they did with two other systems in recent weeks...in giving it the next name, Helene, just because some ivy tower meteorologist wants to get anal about it all even though the winds may be strong enough: I've had it with this  "PTC" nonsense.  In any event, the storm in question is predicted to rapidly form and intensify in the next two days while picking up a lot of speed traveling across the Gulf of Mexico.  Hopefully, we won't be too directly affected by it in Gainesville, but then again they're not totally certain exactly where it's going to hit...

.....and now it's 11 AM, and they just named it Helene.  Winds are now at 45 mph and it's picking up speed, about to pass between Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula before entering the Gulf...