Wednesday, September 1, 2010

FORMATION OF FIONA

Hampton Inn Washington Dulles South
Chantilly, VA
72*

Tropical Storm Fiona has formed in the Atlantic Ocean and is following a rough path behind Hurricane Earl.  With 40 MPH winds, she lacks much of the punch of Cat 2 Earl and his 135 MPH winds.  Yesterday Earl passed the Eastern edge of Puerto Rico but remained much off shore.  The top winds on the island stayed around 40, according to my colleagues on the island.  Some trees and power lines were downed and over 100,000 people were without power but there were no reports of injury among my friends/co-workers.  5 of our 33 employees couldn't get to work because of downed trees blocking their routes.

click on picture for full screen


Above is the current forecast track of Hurricane Earl.  It is expected to brush the US coastline but not make an actual landfall.  Still, preparations should be underway to defend against a direct hit.  A category 4 storm has incredible wind force, not to be taken lightly.

Below, Fiona's track is expected to have less of an impact on our mainland.















Pictured here are the storms approximate locations.  The orange cirle is a broad area of low pressure off the African coast, which has a good chance of becoming the next named storm on the list; Gaston.

I'm up at 3:30 AM to teach a 5 AM First Aid/CPR class so that I can get out of town on a 2:20 departure from Dulles to Tampa.  Tomorrow I drive 3 hours to Miami to teach an excavation safety class.

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