Commodities effected, sugar, oranges, cotton, livestock, grain and soybeans.

Hurricane Irma (click here) probably will ravage Florida’s orange groves and sugar-cane crops once the powerful storm strikes the state this weekend. But the damage may not end there for the agriculture industry in the Southeast. Heavy rain and wind is projected to keep moving north into Georgia and reach parts of Tennessee, Alabama and the Carolinas, putting some of the top U.S. producers of chicken, cotton and hogs at risk.

"You’ve got your citrus and vegetable issue in Florida right away, and then as it moves on up into north Florida and Georgia, that’s right in the heart of peanut and cotton country, and soybean and corn country in southwest Georgia, primarily," Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, a Georgia native and former state governor, told reporters in Washington Friday....

The south is not known for it's grain production. The Midwest is the grain capital of the country. There will be some grain losses, but, not the largest harvest in the country by any means.

I don't think Florida will be breaking it's tourism record this year.

August 15, 2017
By John Lucas

...Estimates from Visit Florida (click here) indicate that of the more than 60 million tourists in the first half of the year, 53.2 million were domestic visitors, 5.3 million were overseas visitors and 2.2 million were Canadian visitors. The number of overseas and Canadian tourists are down slightly from a year ago.

The latest tourism numbers come as Visit Florida regroups from an effort by some legislative leaders to gut the agency’s budget.

The dispute left a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the tourism marketing agency for months.

The original budget approved by the Legislature in early May reduced funding for Visit Florida by two-thirds. But Scott and legislative leaders worked out a plan to restore Visit Florida’s budget that was approved in a special session in June.

The plan to restore funding to Visit Florida also brought tighter budget controls and more transparency in how the agency spends its money. The added transparency resulted in a number of local tourism boards cutting ties with Visit Florida.

Tourism officials are encouraged by the latest visitor numbers. They are hoping to draw 120 million tourists this year breaking last year’s record number of 112 million....

Hm. Coastal industry. I saw a film whereby a crane was floating by a moored container ship. Hm. Yep.

...Merchandise exports (click here) shipped from and through Florida totaled $81.7 billion in 2014. International trade and investment accounted for about one-sixth of the state’s economic output in 2014 and supports an estimated 1 million jobs. Florida’s leading exports include motor vehicles, aircraft, engines and parts, telecommunications equipment, computers and components, and gold. The state is also expanding exports of waste and scrap, agricultural products, seafood, livestock, minerals, forestry products, and oil and gas....

Storm clouds (click here) from looming Cat 4 Hurricane Irma obscure the view of the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building and Launch Complex 39A as seen from Titusville, forcing NASA to close the Kennedy Space Center until the storm passes.

Hurricane Irma: Barbuda, A Caribbean paradise lost - BBC News

Randy Bresnik found major land loss in the island communities. (click here)

(Marine Fighter Pilot, Test Pilot, @NASA Astronaut, Citadel Grad, but most important: incredibly blessed to be a Husband and Father.)

This photo (click here) provided by Michael Sechler shows a stranded manatee in Manatee County, Fla., Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017. The mammal was stranded after waters receded from the Florida bay as Hurricane Irma approached. That the manatee couldn't outrun the retreating tide speaks to the side with which they rise and fall around hurricane winds.

It is a real mess, isn't it? Everyone was told. Everyone.

September 10, 2017
2230.19z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of north and west hemisphere (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)

This is not moral values. 

Sure we take good care of vulnerable people, but, we do so after the fact it could have been prevented if American values were upheld from the 1960s going forward.

Will our choice in leadership reflect the reality we now are facing? Isn't it time to face reality and stop denying the reality of the climate crisis?

I expect the 9-1-1 calls to be published at some point.

Watch four cameras tracking Hurricane Irma

The journalism of Irma is incredible. The journalists have good insight from their preparation and a good support system to protect them from raw elements. All that of it will be a permanent record of Irma and will be studied for years to come.

The efforts to document this storm are no less than heroic.

The story of a friend that heeded the warning.

We've worked hard for days to get our house buttoned up and yesterday we moved to Heron Creek Middle School in North Port ... 28 ft above sea level and built for a Cat5 with an awesome pet friendly shelter too. Thank You to all our friends and family for your love, concern and prayers. Now we wait and see whats left upon our return. ❤️ Update..it is coming straight for us!!

She has significant connective tissue disease. It is a chronic disease with a fair amount of pain. It is good to know she has a really good friend who helps her all the time. Both she and he are at the shelter together. I imagine he wouldn't have it any other way.

Below is dinner. Looks good to me.

Storm Surge is wind driven whether on the front or back side of the hurricane's 'eye.' As long as there is high wind there is a danger of storm surge.

If people have heeded the warning about the hurricane's danger, this wouldn't even an issue. 

There are some dead, that is known. Everyone did a great job. Everyone. People make choices most others would not. Everyone did a great job.

Hurricanes are known dangers. It should not take enormous efforts to move people. When reflecting on the number of people moved to leave their homes to seek safety, this was an incredibly successful effort.

The picture of the tornado is novel and interesting, but, realistically one has to wonder if the picture should exist at all if all had evacuated. The photographer is a lucky person. The odds didn't deliver the tornado overhead. Luck is not a friend when facing a hurricane. This is not a wise thing to do.

September 10, 2017
By Harriet Alexander, James Rothwell and Julie Allen

Tornado setting down in Fort Lauderdale.

...One woman in Miami (click here) had to deliver her own baby girl during the storm as emergency services were unable to reach her. A fire service spokesman said: "We weren't able to respond. Dispatch told her how to do it and she's stable at home."

Among at least three people reported dead as Irma hit was sheriff's deputy Julie Bridges who died alongside another in a car crash about 60 miles from Sarasota. 

In a separate accident, a man lost control of a truck in strong winds in Key West.

Irma made landfall in Florida on Sunday morning at Cudjoe Key with sustained winds of 130 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

It was expected to bring up to 25 inches of rain in some parts of the Keys.

Some 6.4 million Floridians had been ordered to evacuate, more than a quarter of Florida' population, amid warnings they would be "on their own" if they stayed.  Of those who stayed 100,000 were in shelters, but some chose to remain in their own homes....

The wind speed determines the category.

The readings are not a mistake. The wind speed is at the periphery as much as the "eye wall." The "eye" for Irma is on the west side of Florida while the winds are still over the hottest waters on the east side of Florida.

The "Irma system" is extensive. It has just gone through a high energy event that removed the heat transfer system to the north. The storm actually increased in diameter when it disconnected into a more autonomous system.

Irma

22.10 -77.70 09/09/11Z 140 924 HURRICANE-5
22.50 -78.80 09/09/20Z 135 930 HURRICANE-4
22.80 -79.80 09/09/12Z 110 941 HURRICANE-3
23.40 -80.50 09/09/18Z 110 933 HURRICANE-3
23.50 -81.00 09/10/00Z 105 933 HURRICANE-3
24.10 -81.50 09/10/06Z 115 928 HURRICANE-4
25.00 -81.50 09/10/12Z 115 933 HURRICANE-4

Kindly note the high energy content of Iram at it's most southern end. The water is hot. The "eye" will more north, but, slowly. That is the issue. The longevity of the storm is the most destructive aspect. The storm surge builds with sustained winds. The land is receiving sustained flooding and winds.

Jose is a worry. It south of Irma and of course located southeast of Irma, but, Jose is traveling north west.

16.90 -59.30 09/09/11Z 135 938 HURRICANE-4
17.50 -60.30 09/09/20Z 130 940 HURRICANE-4
18.30 -61.30 09/10/01Z 125 945 HURRICANE-4
19.20 -62.40 09/09/18Z 125 945 HURRICANE-4
19.80 -63.40 09/10/00Z 115 944 HURRICANE-4
20.80 -64.50 09/10/06Z 115 944 HURRICANE-4
21.70 -65.80 09/10/12Z 115 944 HURRICANE-4

Storm surge occurs in front of the hurricane NOT AFTER the hurricane has passed.

The FACT storm surge happens in front of the hurricane is NOT a consensus belief. Scientific facts are scientific facts. Science is not a 'belief' issue.

Please don't participate in misinformation. It effects people's lives.


Storm surge (click here) was the main cause of death during Hurricane Katrina. In fact, it can be the most dangerous part of any hurricane, and it is only partly determined by wind speed (the aspect of a storm on which the hurricane categories are based). It occurs when strong winds from an approaching hurricane push water into the shore.

What makes this rise particularly dangerous is that it starts to build up before the hurricane makes landfall. So the coastal flooding from it can make evacuation procedures and the impact of a hurricane much worse....

Storm Surge vs. Storm Tide (click here)

"Ocean Today" has some very effective video (click here}

Yale University needs to change it's name.

To begin there is no honor in the name Yale. Secondly, this article is in a newspaper from the country of India. 

With the rise of the White Supremacist movement and the oppression of African Americans in dissolving the protections of "The Voter Rights Act of 1964;" there is no doubt in the hearts and minds of allies, the celebration of the Civil War and it's leaders and slave dealers is blatantly wrong and painful.

Yale University Mission Statement (click here)

Yale is committed to improving the world today and for future generations through outstanding research and scholarship, education, preservation, and practice. Yale educates aspiring leaders worldwide who serve all sectors of society. We carry out this mission through the free exchange of ideas in an ethical, interdependent, and diverse community of faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

Yale needs to look toward those graduated from and involved in making it's mission successful while upholding it's integrity. This is a sincere opportunity to purge the dishonor of a former wealthy merchant in the way of the slave trade. There is no morality in that name.

A new name should reflect a long lived mission that has provided incredible graduates to the USA and global community. 

There is no place in the USA for any celebration of slavery. NONE. The people the White Supremacists celebrate were treasonists. If Lincoln wasn't so interested in healing the country, they would have been hung as an enemy to the United States of America. They have no honor and no place in celebration in any method of statue, name or otherwise. Their names will be included in the history of the USA as those that not only resisted abolition of slavery but, to the point they waged a war against the sovereignty of their very country.

There is no honor in that. The LAW of the time is no different than today. They were all treasonists and should have been hung to death. And to think the White Supremacists want statues in graveyards is as much an insult. The USA needs to purge it's honor of the most dishonorable men in it's history. 

February 27, 2017
By S. Muthiah

Believe it or not, (click here) there are a few who want to change the name of Yale University! It was initially named Yale College after Elihu Yale, Governor of Madras (1687-1692), who had, in 1715 and 1721, gifted about £800 worth of textiles and books to what was the Collegiate School of Connecticut. Their reason: The donor had not only kept slaves in Madras but had also encouraged slave exports.

These liberals of the anti-Trump brigade cite precedent. Yale in February re-named its Calhoun College, Hopper College because John Calhoun, a Vice President of America, had been “a white supremacist and a national leader who passionately supported slavery”, according to Yale’s President who amplified, “He was fundamentally in conflict with Yale’s mission and values.” So was Yale, say the liberals pointing to Yale’s Madras record of dubiously enriching himself and supporting slavery....

Harvard continues to struggle with it's purging.

February 28, 2017
By Colleen Walsh

Last spring, Harvard President Drew Faust (click here) joined with Civil Rights icon and U.S. Rep. John Lewis to affix a plaque on Harvard’s Wadsworth House in honor of Titus, Venus, Bilhah, and Juba, who lived and worked there as enslaved persons during the presidencies of Benjamin Wadsworth and Edward Holyoke in the 1700s. “Today we take an important step in the effort to explore the complexities of our past and to restore this painful dimension of Harvard’s history to the understanding of our heritage,” said Faust during the unveiling. “The past never dies or disappears. It continues to shape us in ways we should not try to erase or ignore.”

This Friday, the University will take another step in exploring its long-ago ties to slavery with a major daylong symposium at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study that will examine the relationship between slavery and universities....

September 10, 2017
1015 UTC
NOAA Water Vapor Satellite of north and west hemisphere. (click here for 7 hour 'rock' loop - thank you)

Irma's "eye" is nearly at landfall to Key West. Jose has moved north, but, not without effecting the Leeward Islands. There is another circulation behind Jose. There may be another storm forming west of Mexico. 

Irma has been effecting southern to central Florida for some time now. There is flooding and wind damage.

Irma

22.10 -77.70 09/09/11Z 140 924 HURRICANE-5
22.50 -78.80 09/09/20Z 135 930 HURRICANE-4
22.80 -79.80 09/09/12Z 110 941 HURRICANE-3
23.40 -80.50 09/09/18Z 110 933 HURRICANE-3
23.50 -81.00 09/10/00Z 105 933 HURRICANE-3
24.10 -81.50 09/10/06Z 115 928 HURRICANE-4

The time sequence for Jose is a little odd, but, it probably is a typo. That has to be a first. The NHC is busy. It shows. 

Jose

16.90 -59.30 09/09/11Z 135 938 HURRICANE-4
17.50 -60.30 09/09/20Z 130 940 HURRICANE-4
18.30 -61.30 09/10/01Z 125 945 HURRICANE-4
19.20 -62.40 09/09/18Z 125 945 HURRICANE-4
19.80 -63.40 09/10/00Z 115 944 HURRICANE-4
20.80 -64.50 09/10/06Z 115 944 HURRICANE-4

September 10, 2017
Intellicast USA Temperature Departure map 

There are very few temperatures across the USA that is considered normal.

When following local temperatures across the country there is a stark phenomenon. The air heats significantly after sunrise and falls equally significantly at sunset.

Irma has a rather slow path. Kindly keep in mind the longer the exposure to high wind and rain increases the damage and threat to life. There is a supply of hot water all along Irma's path and in that is the reality of sluggish movement. It is causing sustained dynamics.

Storm Surge with a hurricane like Irma is not simply a wave that crashes and recedes. The wind CONTINUALLY will be pushing water into the land. It is the sustained wind that will pile up water and MAINTAIN flooding. This storm surge will SUSTAIN as long as the winds sustain.

The storm surge maps created by the NHC is based upon the sustained winds and maintenance of that wind in waters that flood. The wind will continue to push flood waters inland. The weight of the water is not heavy enough to recede against the sustained wind. The wind force is greater than the gravity of the water weight.

The iconic picture of Irma and the USA.

September 9, 2017

By Marc Santora, Henry Fountain and Vivian Yee

Miami — After plowing (click here) a path of destruction through the Caribbean and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee in one of the largest evacuations in American history, Hurricane Irma began to maul southern Florida on Saturday and was poised to howl up its west coast Sunday with deadly force and fury.

The time to gather supplies was over, and in most of the region, it was getting too late to run. The Florida Keys faced a potentially catastrophic brew of winds topping 125 miles per hour and a storm surge that threatened to drown whole islands. By Saturday evening, the ocean around Key West was spilling into hotel parking lots and onto roads, while tornadoes growled through Palm Beach and Broward counties, rumbling like freight trains on the move....