10 September 2017

Stormy weather

We're not in the eye of a hurricane, but we've had some stormy weather here in Saint-Aignan too. Yesterday was windy in the morning and then rainy, especially late in the day. Walt and Natasha had just returned home from a long afternoon walk when a  heavy rain started falling. While they were out walking, I took these photos.


When I zoomed in on the clouds, I got the photo below. The sky was quickly getting darker. The rain didn't last very long, but it was hard. Weather forecasts had predicted 28 mm (over an inch) of rain for late Friday night and early Saturday morning, but we only got a quarter of that. I'm not sure how much more we got in the gauge in the evening, because we haven't checked it yet.


A lot of the grapes out back have been harvested now. There was a scramble to get as many grapes picked Friday afternoon because of the predictions of heavy rain. It's downright cold here this morning.


I'm still tracking Hurricane Irma by watching CNN and checking Accuweather and the U.S. National Hurricane Center site. I'm worried about my old California friend and colleague who now lives near Naples in SW Florida and is riding out the storm in her house. The Google Maps screen above shows the neighborhood she lives in, called Island Walk. It's more water than land, and the square mile it covers is home to some 3,300 residents. It appears to be about five miles from the Gulf coast. I've never been there. Maybe my friend, who's in her 70s, will have changed her mind and moved to higher ground by now.

23 comments:

  1. Hope M. will be safe and no damage to her property.

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    1. I just checked Facebook to see if she'd left any news, but nothing. I hope heavy rains don't cause flooding in that neighborhood of canals lined with houses.

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    2. I am admiring your lovely atmospheric sky pics today. We hid in the caravan during the rain and watched the river which is constantly changing. It is in the "back yard" of our river pitch again this visit and wonderful to watch. Yesterday, it looked as though it was flowing backwards and rose gently all day. A tourist riverboat passed us yesterday afternoon, up and back, the first we have seen, although we have been told they used to ply regularly. The river is dammed again, apparently just for the season and the base nautique is in use again.

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    3. Suecee, I have to go to see the doctor in Saint-Aignan tomorrow and another doctor, maybe over in St-Georges, and also probably this week. Busy busy...

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    4. I'll be back in touch after I've seen the doctor tomorrow.

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  2. I really hope your friend left Naples!

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    1. As far as I know, she is still there. Unless she has blown or floated away. I hope she made the right decision.

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  3. We are in the path now, in Jacksonville Fl and I am terrified and hunkering down at home, it is too late to run away ..
    I hope it will all be over soon and I can relax ... and get out of Florida as fast as possible.
    NY snow is welcome, as long as there are no hurricanes !
    Take care ..

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    1. Best of luck to you! Will be thinking of you and keeping my fingers crossed.

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  4. They just said on the news, "It's worse than Andrew, it's bigger than Andrew." And, I remember Andrew just flattening whole neighborhoods. This is so frightening.
    Judy

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    1. Andrew was a tornado-like hurricane. Many or most hurricanes are much bigger but less intense. Irma seems to be gigantic and hyper-intense. Heavy rain, strong winds, storm tides, and tornadoes. That's the definition of a hurricane squared.

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  5. It sure is frightening .. this is what makes these storms so dreadfully frightening, you are really totally helpless. The only thing we can do is run and hide ..then go back and see if there is even a home standing ..

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    1. It's true, and the hurricanes are so big and unpredictable. You never know what to expect or when to expect it.

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  6. Hopefully, she went to higher ground and is safe. I sure have said some prayers for those in her path. Thankfully, we are being spared the wrath of Irma. Who would have thought it would be tracking towards Atlanta! I will be so glad when hurricane season is over!

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    1. The friend who is now under the storm in Naples hired me for a job in Silicon Valley in 1989. We worked together until 1995 and became friends. She was hired for a big job at Microsoft and I stayed in San Francisco. She then moved to Naples FL (as far from Seattle as I can get, she said, and still be in the U.S.) about the same time that Walt and I moved to France. I haven't seen her since, except on Facebook. I hope she is okay, what with the extreme wind and rain down there in SW Florida.

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  7. I hope your friend in Naples is OK. I have friends in the southeast, near Palm Beach, and they're expecting it to be down to a Category 1 on the east coast, so big relief. With luck, northern Florida won't get too much bad storm, since it will diminish as it moves north. The NOAA tracking shows it heading toward St. Louis once inland.

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    1. I have a close cousin who lives in Fort Pierce FL, and a few minutes ago I saw some video footage on CNN that made the storm look pretty fierce, even that far north and on Florida's east coast. I think the whole state of Florida is under siege.

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    2. Oh, definitely. This is a monster storm. But the east coast is no longer, apparently, at such great risk, and a Cat 1 or even 2, while still dangerous, is survivable. Florida building codes are even stronger than California's.

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  8. 1:53 pm and pouring rain, torrential .. big big gusts of wind .. the cats are sleeping and I am pacing the house, looking out windows and figuring out which closet would be the best for hiding ... they gave us a tornado alert, just to be sure we are frightened enough. That has just passed. I wish I could sleep through it like the cats do.
    bye for now, not sure how long power will remain on.

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  9. 9:15 pm and bands of heavy rain with wind in Jacksonville Florida. I saved a frog. My work is done.

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    1. It's the middle of the night (midnight) where you are. Wondering if you still have electricity. Even the east coast of Florida and northern sections are being swept by bands of heavy rain and damaging winds. Hope you don't get flooding where you are.

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  10. Beautiful shots, Ken. I'm also worried about Barbara/Merle. No word today. Didn't realize she lived mostly near water. Now I'm even more worried.

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