And now a word about the weather . . .

UPDATE, 6/7, about noon: Most of the rain from Andrea stayed on the west side of the storm as it came up the southeast coast last evening and night. It looks like we had something less than 2 inches of rain in most areas around Savannah. There was a fair bit of wind out on the islands, apparently, but relatively little that I noticed here in town By mid-morning today, the sun started coming out occasionally.

UPDATE, 2:40 p.m.: The NHC’s 2 p.m. advisory contained little new information. High tide in the Savannah area is at 7:30 p.m. tonight, and we could see at some point over the next 24 hours a storm surge of 1-2 feet. So that could compound some localized flooding issues, if we get significant rain.

ORIGINAL POST:
I blog about things that interest me here at Savannah Unplugged.

And I am interested in the weather, especially tropical systems and cyclones. In part, this might have to do with my lifelong interest in natural disasters, but it’s mainly because I live on the coast here in Savannah and my scientist sister lives in New Orleans. Nancye and I routinely trade news and links about developments in the tropics.

So I’ll probably be posting some this summer about tropical storms and hurricanes.

In May 2012, I posted off and on for several days about Tropical Storm Beryl, which formed quickly and had a number of pretty dramatic effects. I posted about it out of simple interest, but also out of frustration with the generally poor coverage of the storm on local websites. I don’t watch much TV, so I get my info from the web. I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrating it was to hear misinformation posted incessantly via social media by locals who had apparently been glued to their televisions for hours but who also seemed to have only the vaguest idea what the forecast actually was. And then they complained about getting too much information.

For much more fleshed out thoughts about the issue of misinformation, check out that post: 3 lessons from Beryl.

Anyway, here’s what’s up with Tropical Storm Andrea, as of about noon on Thursday, June 6.

From the National Hurricane Center’s 11 a.m. update (the NHC’s regular schedule is to issue updates at 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m., 8 p.m., 11 p.m., 2 a.m., eastern time):

Andrea may have just formed last night, but she’s a fairly large tropical storm. There seems no danger of the storm reaching hurricane strength, but it’s possible — even pretty likely — that we’ll have heavy rains here in the Savannah area beginning this afternoon and continuing through much of the night. According to WTOC, we coud get up to 8 inches of rain. We could also have some dangerous wind gusts up to 50 mph.

This is a serious storm. The entire Georgia coast is under a tropical storm warning.

Now, maybe Andrea will weaken more than expected, or take a harder turn to the east, or do something else that dramatically reduces the expected impacts.

But it’s also possible that Beryl could strengthen more than expected before making landfall, that it could slow down a bit, and that it could produce even more significant flooding than the current worst-case scenario.

So be careful, and be informed, especially if you’ve got events planned for the rest of the day or night on Thursday.