2003-09-11 9:47 a.m.

Most people talk about the weather when they have nothing else to talk about. "So, nice weather we've been having, huh?" Not me. When I was 5 and other girls my age wanted to be ballerinas I wanted to be a meteorologist {if meteorologists study weather, who studies meteors?}. I loved 6pm every day because I could watch Clyde McClain - the local weather guy on ABC.

Now I'm older and I forecast hotel room occupancy and rate instead of the weather, but I still love it. I watch the weather channel every day. I would watch the local weather in Charlotte because it's different every day. Here not so much, so I have to go national. Did you know it snowed in Vail, CO last night? Right now their temps are in the upper 20s!! And it's September!

And also because it's September, I have to keep an eye on the tropics. Why? Because hurricanes suck. And because my parents live smack in the middle of hurricane alley. 5 miles inland, but still right there.

In 1999, I lived with them for 6 months {6 LONG months}, but within the first month and 1/2 we had 3 hurricanes. Acutally the first one was the first day I moved down there. But 2 were catergory 1, and there are thunderstorms at the beach with more winds than an H1. The other one was Floyd. He was a category 3, but he came onshore as pretty much just rain, and not at cat 3 strength. Other than Hugo, many many years ago, we've not had a major one hit NC. That came on-shore as a category 4 and stayed that strong all the way into Charlotte - a 4 hour drive from the coast.

it just occured to me that anyone reading this that's not me is 1, bored & 2, probably not up on the hurricane lingo:

Category 1 - winds 74-95 mph

Category 2 - winds 96-110 mph

Cat 3 - winds 111 - 130 mph

Cat 4 - winds 131 - 155 mph

Cat 5 - winds 155+

Plus there's storm surge which means the ocean waves are much higher. From 4 feet at Cat 1 to 18+ at cat 5.

A few weeks ago I started watching Fabain. Luckily he made a freak turn north & other than Bermuda was just a rain maker for the US. Ditto with Henri. Some wind damage, but mostly rain. Of course it's rain to people who have seen it rain almost every day this year.

So now there's Isabel. She's Category 4 with winds at 150mph. She's moving 9mph, going west. She didn't follow Fabian's northern turn. And right now she's no where near landfall, but if she stays on the current path, this time next week FL will be getting the rains. If she turns South West, she could smack into FL. I think we all know a couple of people that live in FL. If she goes NW she couuld hit anywhere from Charleston, where all Jody's family lives, to Wilmington, where my family lives, or further north into VA or DE. VA & DE aren't as likely but, even if she were to hit middle NC, the people north get more of the wind damage than the people south of impact. And the whole east coast is going to get rain. On their already rain-soaked land, which means flooding. {sigh} This is seriously depressing.

Her path is now projected "on paper" through next Tuesday. I hope the National Weather Service, The National Hurricane Center & the Navy are all wrong & she turns north SOON!

If anyone is super bored, this site has all kinds of cool maps. It takes them a minute to download, but its worth the wait: