I was inside today for the final day of the National Hurricane Conference and, if not for my FOX 8 Weather App, I would have missed all the stormy weather since none of the conference rooms had windows. What a powerful tool to have during severe weather as my FOX 8 Weather App, alerted me to tornado warnings, severe T-Storm warnings, lightning & heavy rain. It will keep you safe before threatening weather arrives. That's a problem we will not have for awhile as the pattern (severe threat every Thursday) is shifting for the next 7-10 days with the storm track retreating farther to the north keeping all the bad stuff away from us. We are still on track for a spectacular weekend for jazz Fest & the Zurich Golf Classic. After todays 1-2"+ rainfall, we'll need some time to dry out and I really don't see any rain chances for the next 5-7 days or longer. Get out and enjoy it as the hotter weather of May is just around the corner.
As I mentioned yesterday, the buzz word at this year's Hurricane Conference was RESILIENCE, the ability to quickly recover after a disaster. I sat in on a wind engineering session this afternoon that talked about building codes and how mitigation (spending more up front to make your structure stronger) really works. Picture after picture compared buildings that were torn apart while nearby was a structure not damaged. The speakers stressed that building codes only set the MINIMUM levels for a structure's vulnerability and we need to build stronger than that. But what do our great politicians in Louisiana do? Urged on by the construction lobby (campaign money), they LOWERED the codes in our state. lovely. Seeing the pictures from Michael's destruction, I shutter to think what will happen here with weaker codes. We should all be concerned. Other issues tackled today were success stories regarding the NHC forecast track errors. Back in 1960, the track errors at 3 days were 400+ miles. Now the track errors at FIVE days are down to 180 miles. Speakers emphasized too much focus is on the category & intensity and not on the SIZE of the system. The size affects the surge more that the wind speeds, like in Katrina. People fear the storm surge, but don't fear the rising waters in inland flooding which causes more deaths. I'll have more details in future blogs. Stay tuned!
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