 | This user participates in WikiProject Tropical cyclones. |
A "Bit" of Info
editJust a little summary of how I got interested in TC'S, and how far back understanding goes. I have known about things such as tornadoes or thunderstorms most of my life, but never understood or really cared about what causes them. About 7 or 8 years ago, I got a video tape (old stuff) about Cyclones (TC's and tornadoes in general) and I was somewhat hooked, watching it off and on for these years. It was about tornadoes and hurricanes, (hurricane-wise) primarily Hurricane Andrew, and tornado-wise, primarily tornado outbreaks from the early 90's (I was born in 94', which wasn't a very good year for Atlantic hurricanes, (hence my user name) but good for the Pacific. Three Cat. 5's definitely constitutes a busy year for that basin). Anyway, fortunately, I haven't had the "privilege" of having a tornado even come near my house, let alone actually hit it, so yeah, I'm probably lucky (I get quite a bit excited during a big thunderstorm or during the winter, a snowstorm (I live in Ohio, the biggest and best winter storm I remember was the big ice and snowstorm back in December 2004, don't know if anyone else remembers it but, it was a big one.) Anyway, back to TC's. I first remember hurricanes back from all the online news in 2004 from the effects of Hurricane's Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne in Florida, (man, they really got hit hard that year), and as for the rest of 2004 I don't remember anything more until 2005, when I first heard about Hurricane Katrina heading for New Orleans, and remembered about a part of my video about Cyclones about what if a hurricane like Andrew were to hit New Orleans at Cat. 5 intensity. These days, a hurricane like Andrew hitting New Orleans probably wouldn't cause as many casualties, (If evacuations were rehearsed and well executed, this was apparently done quite well when Gustav was threatening the city last year, when like, over half-three quarters of the city was evacuated, fortunately Gustav only sideswiped the city), but would probably make the damage from Katrina look like cannon fodder, as a Cat. 5 storm surge would most likely swamp the entire city under several times the amount of water as Katrina did. After this, I pretty much didn't care about weather for awhile, occasionally watching videos or DVD's about weather phenomenon, or disasters, on in particular being the "Storm of the Century" from 1993, until last year, when I began seing stuff about Gustav, Hanna, and later Ike on the news, and, for some reason, soon after, I was hooked. It started when Ike's remnants passed directly over Columbus on September 14 last year, downing mostly tree branches, and knocking out power in most of the city for several days (I stood outside when the winds were probably gusting to, oh I don't know, maybe 45-50 mph, but not when they were gusting to 75, if you get what I mean, ha ha). After that, I continually monitored the Atlantic mostly, the east and west Pacific some, but still, mostly the Atlantic. I closely monitored Hurricane Kyle, Tropical (earlier Subtropical) Storm Laura, TS Marco, TS Nana, Hurricane Omar, TD Sixteen, and Hurricane Paloma, but, these weren't the only TC's I monitored that year. I also monitored in the Pacific, Hurricane Norbert, TS Odile, TD Seventeen-E, and TS Polo, as well as Typhoon Jangmi in the western Pacific, as well as TS Bavi, TS Haishen, TS Noul, and Typhoon Dolphin. But, this year was when I REALLY got into TC's, starting with the 2008-09 Southern hemisphere cyclone seasons (S. Pacific, Australian Region, and SW. Indian Ocean), I continually monitored ALL, and I mean ALL TC's in those, and later, in April, the N. Indian Ocean basins. A big boost came to my excitement when TD One developed in the Atlantic on May 28, but it somewhat dropped when official forecasts began calling for an El Nino this year (I'm really into TC's, and as long as they don't cause significant damage or casualties, I'm still excited. Although an El Nino is probably a good thing, as it quite decreases the amount of tropical systems in the Atlantic, which probably means fewer causalties in the Atlantic, Caribbean, and surrounding areas, although it also increases in amount of tropical systems in the Pacific, both eastern and western, which will probably mean a slightly upbeat year for the Pacific, although probably will be nothin' to challenge the 1992 season's record for the eastern Pacific). I created my profile on here about, oh about seven or eight months ago, (early 2009 or late 2008) and apparently have made some pretty significant contributions to TC's articles and pages in that time, (most notably the 1992 Pacific hurricane season, where I have corrected extremely bad grammar and spelling, and added a ton of NHC data on systems in this season, and will continue to do so until every TC section in that season has a fairly well written paragraph). I will probably also continue to monitor tropical systems in all basins for the next several years to come.