Wild Weather!

Blizzards, hurricanes, and earthquakes (?!)

East NC was shaken by an earthquake and bashed by Hurricane Irene all in one week. Let's not forget the blizzard in January...we can honestly say the temperature ranges for 2011 have been from 0 to 100. Actually, 105 back in July so now you can add heatwave to the list of climate catastrophes....alliteration is alive and well in my world.

The East Coast usually does not have earthquakes. The last major quake on the East Coast was in 1886 in Charleston, South Carolina. I am not sure what the Richter scale reading was on that but I have read that experts, whoever they might be, estimate it somewhere between 6.6 and 7.3. You have to go to 1811-1812 for the last quake before that east of the Mississippi...that was the New Madrid fault that is, still active occasionally, and located near St. Louis.

I didn't feel the August 23 quake. I have felt tremors before in Greece. I remember seeing rocks sliding off of hillsides and some waves rippling across the Bay of Argos so this one could not have been too bad. I have not heard of any damage.

Now, I can talk about Hurricanes....Hugo 1989 in Charleston when I was at the Cesspool by the Sea, and Fran here in NC back in 1996. Floyd in 1999 did a number on the northeast quadrant of the state but missed Fayettenam. I was in Wilmington, NC in 2008 for Hurricane Hanna. The storm itself was actually rather brief but I remember most of all the attempted price gouging gas stations embarked on until several thousand phone calls to the Attorney General's office put a quick stop to that. No attempted gouging this time.....due to the storm at any rate.

I can tell you a lot about blizzards too. The big difference between a Pennsylvania and Saskatchewan blizzard is that in Steel Town, the wind can be blocked by the hills but at the same time channeled down one of the three rivers and into your face. On the Canadian prairies , there is nothing to break the wind for five hundred or so miles. Temperatures in Canadian blizzards are worse but it is so bad, your body doesn't even bother noticing so you are actually colder in Pittsburgh even though the temperature might be 20 degrees warmer. If the temperature is -40, does the wind chill even matter?

Of course, on the East Coast, winters tend to be cold and wet whereas the Canadian Midwest's winters are cold and dry. That might make a difference.

The blizzards in NC don't really compare but they can still be pretty bad. Very wet and the roads freeze up quicker because the DOT, although they do an outstanding job, simply does not have enough salt to toss around the tenth largest state in the Union.

Worst of all, the wet snow is terrible for making snowballs.....

I end this post on a note of irony....In 2006, the Carolina Hurricanes won the Holy Grail of hockey--the Stanley Cup.

Think about it.....