So we have ANOTHER hurricane showing up on the weather map. This time it's Kyle. I understand that the names for hurricanes go in alphabetical order, so I must have missed one while I and my family were getting over Hurricane Ike.
Less than a month ago (or so it seems), Hurricane Ike was just a system out on the weather map. It wasn't a personal threat to me or my family. It actually started out being what looked like just a thunderstorm, way out in the waters, just a little bit off the coast of Africa. I believe that Faith and Gustav were up ahead, and still weren't threatening anything near the U.S...yet.
I have the advantage of being married to someone who had to take a class in meteorology when he was in college, toward getting his degree in Marine Transportation. He has to know a thing or two about these systems, in order to judge whether or not he and his crew should keep their vessel in its current spot - - or get out of dodge quickly. He happened to be home, in between hitches overseas (in the off shore oil industry). He has had to hear me worry about these hurricanes approaching land anywhere near us, because when he's gone I am home by myself with two little ones to look after as well. When Cristobal was approaching the Texas coast, I paid enough attention to the weather reports to know that he wasn't a threat to the Houston area. He was headed toward Corpus Christi, which is South of us, and he stayed on a steady course. Then there was Dolly. I emailed him several times on this one, and he even called to assure me that Dolly was not headed toward Houston. Eduardo turned into another system that resulted in emails and a phone call. He happened to be home for Faith and Gustav. We were actually on vacation when Faith came through, and she made landfall in Florida - - not Texas. We weren't really worried about her, anyhow, as we saw her on the weather map, and he said conditions weren't contributing to her heading toward us. When we got home, however, we looked at the weather maps again. This was after Faith made landfall. There on the screen was Gustav, Hannah and Ike. He knew that Gustav and Hannah would not be a personal threat to us. Then he saw what was developing into IKE, and he was concerned. Unfortunately, he had to head back to work the day before IKE made landfall in Galveston...