Tag: weather

Today in History: The Great New England Hurricane of 1938

Today is the 82nd anniversary of the day the “Long Island Express” came ashore on Long Island, New York.  This is the storm that my grandparents’ generation always talked about when they talked about how bad hurricanes in New England could get.

Pretty damn bad.

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Ah, summer…

Yes, summer is really here, and today the temperature here in Winthrop by the Sea has reached 93 degrees, with a heat index of 100.  So naturally, this is when our air conditioner decides to partially break down.  We have AC in the basement (where it is least needed) and partially on the first floor, but it basically isn’t working at all on the second floor and so the temperature in our bedroom hit 85 degrees in the shade.  We are temporarily sleeping in the basement on the sleeper sofa until the HVAC guys can come on Monday.

The only one of us who seems totally unaffected is Violet.  She doesn’t seem to mind the heat at all.  Scratch, on the other hand, has camped out in the basement with us and the dogs.

Last American Slave Ship Has Been Found

A remarkably low tide has revealed the remnants of a ship in a river delta near Mobile Alabama.  Historians believe that this may be the wreck of the Clotilda, a schooner used to bring some 110 slaves from West Africa to Alabama in 1860.  The Clotilda is believed to be the last ship to bring slaves to the United States.

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Bitter cold in Boston this week

When I got up this morning, the temperature was 4 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind chill was -10 degrees Fahrenheit.  We may even get some snow tomorrow night and Thursday.  I will try to get some pictures and post them if we do.  And behind that storm will come more bitter cold, what our fave meteorologist Dave Epstein is calling “the worst of the winter”.  Predicted lows for Friday and Saturday are well below zero, not even including wind chill.

ETA: The National Weather Service is now saying that Thursday could bring a “significant winter storm” with predictions from 4 to 8 inches to as much as 12 inches of heavy wet snow (with numbers possibly changing depending on how far inland the storm tracks), plus high winds, which means downed trees and power outages are much more likely.   We may even have ourselves a blizzard.  Oh my.

~Geoff

 

The garden is doing pretty well so far

In my last gardening post, I had promised to put up more pictures at some point to show how things were progressing with the garden.  And so here is the progress report.  Today was a gorgeous (but hot) summer day and I was out in the yard doing some work, so I thought I would take some pictures for another blog post.

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Our wacky New England weather

Yesterday it was raining and the temperature actually dropped into the upper 40’s.  In June.  There is actually a slight chance of us having a Nor’Easter on Friday.  Oh, crazy New England weather, don’t ever change.  Honestly, I still prefer you to baking in the humid Southern sun.

And speaking of insanity and bad weather, we are supposed to have a bad hurricane season this year.  That wouldn’t be quite as troubling except that the current occupant of the White House has not yet put anyone in charge of NOAA, FEMA, or the NHC.*  He can, however, find the time to go play a lot of golf and to tweet all sorts of crazy stuff.  Needless to say, people in hurricane-prone places like Florida are starting to notice.

Well, since Trump is also planning to slash FEMA’s budget as well as the NOAA budget and the NASA budget, maybe they think we don’t need to worry about being able to predict the weather.  We should just sit back and not worry about silly things like storm forecasts and we can just go back to the blissful days of yore, when major storms could sneak up on people with little to no warning and do horrendous damage.

Nah, that could never happen again, right?

~Geoff

*It turns out Trump did nominate someone to lead FEMA in late April, but the Senate has not yet voted on the nominee, probably because they are so busy trying to take away everyone’s health insurance.

Winter says “April Fool’s, New England!”

Well, we were almost under the illusion that Spring was here, and then Winter decided to play a little prank on us.  Not quite as spectacular as the big blizzard back in 1997, but still, very winter-like weather.  Here in Winthrop the weather has switched back and forth quite a bit between rain, sleet and snow.  Right now it is snowing, and has been since I got up this morning.  I doubt much of it will stick, though, and that seems to be David Epstein’s assessment as well.

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Still, it is nice to see a beautiful winter landscape one last time before spring really arrives.

-Geoff

The most famous boat in town

Ever since the big nor’easter we had earlier this month, there has been a new tourist attraction of sorts along the coastal road between Revere and Winthrop.  A sailboat washed ashore, dragging its mooring line with it.  The storm washed it almost all the way up onto the sea wall.  I can’t imagine that the boat was not damaged in the process.  What a shame.

I wonder when someone will finally come claim it.

Anyway, it seems as if at any given moment, someone has stopped to look at the erstwhile shipwreck and take pictures of it.  The first day after the storm, there was a whole row of cars.  And every single time I have driven along that coastal road, no matter what time of day, there was someone looking at the boat.  Seriously, every single time, including today, when I finally stopped and got a picture or two myself.

I hope it is not too badly damaged.

-Geoff