Here’s the 11 AM EDT update from the National Hurricane Center. One of the most important parts of the update is the forecast estimate that Matthew may make a landfall in Charleston as a Category 2 hurricane before heading back into the Atlantic and making a wide loop back towards the Bahamas, Florida, and/or the Caribbean.
000 WTNT34 KNHC 071455 TCPAT4 BULLETIN HURRICANE MATTHEW ADVISORY NUMBER 38 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL142016 1100 AM EDT FRI OCT 07 2016 ...WESTERN EYEWALL OF DANGEROUS HURRICANE MATTHEW BRUSHING PORTIONS OF THE NORTHEAST COAST OF FLORIDA... SUMMARY OF 1100 AM EDT...1500 UTC...INFORMATION ----------------------------------------------- LOCATION...29.4N 80.5W ABOUT 35 MI...55 KM ENE OF DAYTONA BEACH FLORIDA ABOUT 95 MI...155 KM SE OF JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...120 MPH...195 KM/H PRESENT MOVEMENT...NNW OR 345 DEGREES AT 12 MPH...19 KM/H MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...947 MB...27.97 INCHES WATCHES AND WARNINGS -------------------- CHANGES WITH THIS ADVISORY: The Hurricane Warning has been extended northeastward to Surf City North Carolina. The Hurricane Warning from Sebastian Inlet to Cocoa Beach Florida has been changed to a Tropical Storm Warning. The Tropical Storm Warning south of Sebastian Inlet has been discontinued. The Tropical Storm Warning and Tropical Storm Watch along the west coast of Florida has been discontinued. A Tropical Storm Warning has been issued from north of Surf City to Duck, North Carolina, including the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds. A Hurricane Watch has been issued from Surf City to Cape Lookout North Carolina. SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT: A Hurricane Warning is in effect for... * Cocoa Beach to Surf City A Hurricane Watch is in effect for... * North of Surf City to Cape Lookout A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for... * Sebastian Inlet to Cocoa Beach * North of Surf City to Duck * Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds For storm information specific to your area, including possible inland watches and warnings, please monitor products issued by your local National Weather Service forecast office. DISCUSSION AND 48-HOUR OUTLOOK ------------------------------ At 1100 AM EDT (1500 UTC), the eye of Hurricane Matthew was located near latitude 29.4 North, longitude 80.5 West. Matthew is moving toward the north-northwest near 13 mph (20 km/h), and this general motion is expected to continue today. A turn toward the north is expected tonight or Saturday. On the forecast track, the center of Matthew will continue to move near or over the coast of northeast Florida and Georgia through tonight, and near or over the coast of South Carolina on Saturday. Maximum sustained winds are near 120 mph (195 km/h) with higher gusts. Matthew is a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Although weakening is forecast during the next 48 hours, Matthew is expected to remain a hurricane until it begins to move away from the United States on Sunday. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 60 miles (95 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 185 miles (295 km). A wind gust to 69 mph (111 km/h) was recently reported at St. Augustine. The latest minimum central pressure reported by an Air Force Hurricane Hunter plane was 947 mb (27.97 inches). HAZARDS AFFECTING LAND ---------------------- WIND: Hurricane and tropical storm conditions are expected to continue over the warning area in Florida today, and spread northward within the warning area through Saturday. Residents in high-rise buildings should be aware that the winds at the top of a 30-story building will be, on average, about one Saffir-Simpson category higher than the winds near the surface. Tropical storm conditions are expected to first reach the tropical storm warning area in North Carolina on Saturday morning. STORM SURGE: The combination of a dangerous storm surge, the tide, and large and destructive waves will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline. The water could reach the following heights above ground if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide... Flagler Beach, Florida, to Edisto Beach, South Carolina, including portions of the St. Johns River...6 to 9 ft Cocoa Beach to Flagler Beach, Florida...4 to 6 ft Edisto Beach, South Carolina to Cape Fear, North Carolina... 4 to 6 ft Sebastian Inlet to Cocoa Beach, Florida...2 to 4 ft Cape Fear to Salvo, North Carolina, including portions of the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds...2 to 4 ft The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast in areas of onshore winds. Surge-related flooding depends on the relative timing of the surge and the tidal cycle, and can vary greatly over short distances. Large waves generated by Matthew will cause water rises to occur well in advance of and well away from the track of the center. For information specific to your area, please see products issued by your local National Weather Service forecast office. There is a danger of life-threatening inundation during the next 36 hours along the Florida northeast coast, the Georgia coast, the South Carolina coast, and the North Carolina coast from Sebastian Inlet, Florida, to Cape Fear, North Carolina. There is the possibility of life-threatening inundation during the next 48 hours from north of Cape Fear to Salvo, North Carolina. For a depiction of areas at risk, please see the Prototype National Weather Service Storm Surge Watch/Warning Graphic. For information specific to your area, please see products issued by your local National Weather Service forecast office. The Prototype Storm Surge Watch/Warning Graphic is a depiction of areas that would qualify for inclusion under a storm surge watch or warning currently under development by the National Weather Service and planned for operational use in 2017. The Prototype Graphic is available at hurricanes.gov. RAINFALL: Matthew is expected to produce total rain accumulations of 8 to 12 inches over the Atlantic coast of the United States from central Florida to eastern North Carolina...with possible isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches. This rainfall may result in flooding and flash flooding. TORNADOES: An isolated tornado or two is possible along the South Carolina, Georgia, and northeast Florida coasts today. SURF: Swells generated by Matthew will continue to affect portions of the Bahamas and the east coast of Florida during the next few days, and will spread northward along the southeast U.S. coast through the weekend. These swells will likely cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions. Please consult products from your local weather office. NEXT ADVISORY ------------- Next intermediate advisory at 200 PM EDT. Next complete advisory at 500 PM EDT. $$ Forecaster Avila
raven
MSNBC has a remote on the roof of the Hampton Inn in downtown Savannah. They are showing the bridge and saying how they are closing it soon. Actually that bridge just goes to Hilton Head and Bluffton.
Adam L Silverman
@raven: Have you noticed that the vast majority of the on camera personnel that MSNBC has in areas either being hit by the storm or in the path of the storm are all people of color while over 90% of the people safe and sound in the studio have been white?
raven
@Adam L Silverman: And the pregnant lady in the studio looks like she is ready!
raven
@Adam L Silverman: Last night Ron Meyer could not be heard for almost 15 minutes as he screamed into to mic!
Mandalay
Somewhat OT, but for an organization with a budget of ~$6 billion, NOAA has a pretty lame web site for reporting on hurricanes. It looks like it was built twenty years ago, it has barely changed over the years, and only provides updates every three hours.
There are reasons for low resolution presentation, but everything doesn’t have to look like that. The windytv web site shames NOAA, showing them what they could and should be doing to better inform folks in the path of a hurricane. It works for any location on earth, and was developed by just three people. Amazing.
NOAA needs to poach those guys.
Adam L Silverman
@raven: The changes in barometric pressure during a hurricane is known to lead to the onset of labor. Not sure there is a remote effect through green screen map projection technology though.
Keith P.
I remember my last trip to Jacksonville (2007). Someone there made it a point to me (probably because I’m from Houston) that Jacksonville *never* gets hit by hurricanes. They claimed it had something to do with where it sat on the peninsula. Guess they were wrong.
Adam L Silverman
@Mandalay: I’m sure as soon as they’re done fending off a vendetta from a House of Representatives investigative committee they’ll get right on it.
raven
@Adam L Silverman: My Italian food has had a similar impact!
Felonius Monk
Navy nephew is stationed at NSB King’s Bay. He and family live in St. Mary’s. Looks like they’re going to get hit pretty good.
schrodinger's cat
Is the Trump resort in the path of the hurricane?
Adam L Silverman
@Keith P.: That is one of those statements that is true until it is no longer true. There is a similar argument made for the Tampa Bay area where I grew up. That the geography of the mouth of the bay and the Pinellas County isthmus keeps hurricanes from entering by pushing them south or north. While this has been the pattern for the past several decades, it too will be a true statement until it is no longer true because a hurricane actually does make a direct hit through the bay.
Adam L Silverman
@raven: Okay.
(makes no sudden moves, backs away slowly…)
Gin & Tonic
On a completely unrelated note, on the 10th anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya’s assassination, this Newsweek piece just posted by Kurt Eichenwald is, IMO, required reading.
germy
@schrodinger’s cat: Good question. Last report I saw his location was spared. But the way this thing is spinning, who knows? I’m sure he’ll capitalize on whatever happens.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodinger’s cat: It got a lot of wind and rain, but the Post family, which built it, built it to withstand a very strong hurricane.
raven
@Felonius Monk: The dredging to keep the channel deep enough for the subs has fucked up the ecosystem!
schrodinger's cat
Florida seems like a scary place to live. Burmese Pythons, alligators, crocs, flying cockroaches, hurricanes and a governor who resembles Lex Luther.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Did you see the NatGeo special a couple weeks ago Facing Putin?
Matt McIrvin
@Mandalay: Weather Underground has a better presentation, with more information about computer models, but NOAA has more directly useful information: those great wind-probability maps like the one Adam posted up top, and the new (if somewhat clunky) map widget showing possible storm surge levels.
Face
OT: This is where the GOP is going should they lose in Nov. This is their mindset. Not surprised they think this way among themselves, but holy fucking shit, they’re now putting it on paper.
schrodinger's cat
The scrolling is weird on this site now, another “upgrade”?
Gin & Tonic
@Adam L Silverman: No, I was traveling. Need to catch up with it.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodinger’s cat: Also, bears, bobcats, panthers, snow birds, tourists that may become snow birds (like those idiots from Wisconsin featured widely on the news last night that weren’t going to evacuate because it was just like a blizzard. Omnes: is your village missing a pair of idiots?), and lots and lots of very old people driving very large sedans very slowly with their left turn signals blinking.
Gindy51
@Mandalay: And pay them with what? Somalians? NOAA has been budget gutted for decades.
Adam L Silverman
@Matt McIrvin: Couldn’t figure out how to get the map widgets to embed, so just the static maps.
germy
@schrodinger’s cat:
A climate change denying Lex Luthor.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: It should repeat and/or be On Demand.
Felonius Monk
@raven: Doesn’t surprise me. We humans seem to fuck up a lot of Mother Nature’s handiwork.
Adam L Silverman
@Face: Notice the author’s bio doesn’t say anything about being a lawyer, studying law, practicing law, teaching law… Just that he’s a political operative in the DC area.
Corner Stone
@Keith P.:
Why would they make that point to you because you happened to be from Houston?
Adam L Silverman
@Gindy51: did you mean simoleons? Paying with Somalians, or more accurately Somalis, would, I think, violate several Constitutional Amendments.
schrodinger's cat
@Face: GOP governing philosophy in one line
Adam L Silverman
@germy: The real, fictional Lex Luthor was smart and competent enough to actually find a way to profit off of climate change by trying to patent as many solutions as possible. Florida, as a comic book, needs a better creative team.
Corner Stone
@Gindy51:
That exchange rate, though.
trollhattan
@schrodinger’s cat:
Don’t you mean Lex Luther impersonating a governor?
schrodinger's cat
@Adam L Silverman: Ideal for disaster porn or a farce.
C. Isaac
@trollhattan:
Lex Luthor wouldn’t ignore science.
Major Major Major Major
@Mandalay: government scientists, like most other scientists, are not known for caring about interfaces or being able to afford anything beyond having “my nephew who’s good with the cyber” design a web site.
Corner Stone
@Face: Ahhh, what a difference a dead Scalia makes.
Glorious!
Adam L Silverman
@Corner Stone: Given the amount of bizarre stuff that’s been stuffed into the Florida state constitution it is entirely possible that there is a Foundational legal requirement to tell this to people from Houston who visit Jacksonville. Florida doesn’t have a normal citizen’s initiative/referendum process. What it has allows citizens to directly amend the state constitution, not make statutory law:
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?submenu=3
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Are you Baron Trump’s uncle?
Corner Stone
When the fascist party held majority in SCOTUS they dedicated every resource to ginning up any case possible to fast track it to the highest court, the “law of the land”. Even though CJ Roberts was a squish, they knew they could count on winning more than losing.
Now, after two wetsuits and at least one dildo in a West Texas private resort, they’re once again all like, “Let’s take our ball and go home!”
Bunch of petulant crybabies.
Keith P.
@Corner Stone: Because Houston is on the Gulf Coast and very susceptible to be hit by hurricanes and tropical storms, and I had noted that sitting on the coast I figured Jax would get leveled by them (they have a ton of old, large homes, which didn’t seem possible for a hurricane target)
Lizzy L
@Corner Stone: World’s tiniest violin playing here, for those whose liberty has been curtailed, nay, destroyed! because they are no longer legally allowed to discriminate against people they consider less than human, i.e. gay people, transgender people, people whose skin is insufficiently pale, people who have less money than they do, anyone who doesn’t want to vote for Republicans, etc. O the horror.
hovercraft
@Gin & Tonic:
Perhaps someone at the Townhall could ask him about the assassination of journalists who are constantly investigating the president, and publishing exposes of his war crimes against Chechens. Perhaps he would then reply that many people believe that Andrew Breithbart and
Michael Hastings were both murdered under those exact same circumstances. And then, who knows, he could turn the tide back in his direction……
Nelle
@Adam L Silverman: Years ago, my husband (then a bush pilot on the North Slope of Alaska) needed to fly a woman in labor to Barrow to the hospital (our village lacked a doctor and only had a rudimentary health clinic and a barely trained health aide). I watched them take off and then, shortly, they were landing again. The change in pressure accelerated the labor and the woman had the baby in the back of the little plane there on the airstrip. (One reason I could never swallow the story about Sarah Palin flying across country while in labor.)
maya
My niece lives around the Melbourne area along the Florida central coast, which has been hit. I looked up info on it from Wiki and in the 1920’s that entire area was a swamp that was drained through a series of canals by developers. The classic swampland in Florida real estate joke was based on fact. Nature will most likely do a reclamation number on Florida eventually.
Starfish
@schrodinger’s cat: Zika
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: quotation marks!
Calouste
@Face: Just looking at the title of that link, and not clicking through, but if the Supreme Court decides something, that’s pretty much the definition of whether something is constitutional or not.
scav
@Major Major Major Major: I’m sure such pure govt scientists are utterly in charge of all all resource, project and staffing decisions in NOAA, no other skillsets or personalities involved in the org.
hovercraft
@schrodinger’s cat:
I think you mean Bat Boy as seen in the News of The World.
hovercraft
@Face:
I believe this has been tried before, it was called nullification. If memory serves, it did not end well.
Starfish
@Mandalay: They change their reports to NOT BE IN ALL CAPS, and now you want them to change everything.
Major Major Major Major
@scav: I know people at NOAA, it’s an institutional mindset common in science-based orgs.
hovercraft
@Adam L Silverman:
As per @Face, that may not be germaine.
Adam L Silverman
@Nelle: Gives new meaning to special delivery by air.
Corner Stone
Where is Punchy when he’s so desperately needed?
Mike J
@Mandalay: That windytv website looks like shit. Solid grey with a search bar and a logo, no content whatsoever on the front page unless you allow strangers to run arbitrary code on your computer.
The NOAA site works, and aside from the graphics, even works with a screenreader. Nothing special required. Give me the NOAA version any day.
nutella
@Keith P.:
When I was in Atlanta I visited a colleague’s house that had a very long and steep driveway. I said that it must be fun in an ice storm, he snapped back that Atlanta never has ice storms. Heh.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J:
While that is technically an accurate description of javascript, I’m not quite sure what to make of it, given that, you know… javascript.
scav
@Major Major Major Major: Oh, I’ve no doubt they exist, I’m from the data-heavy (and data-aquisition) heavy side of academe (some business too). I just doubt the true hard core of us are running the entire resource and project allocations of the entire organization. Management and bureaucracy folks get everywhere, plus specialists of other persuasions — if nothing else, they squeeze into all the voids left by data-geeky scientists trying to get out of meetings and back to the data.
Steve in the ATL
@raven:
Rough times in Savannah–no access to the outlet mall in Bluffton!
DCrefugee
Jacksonville is more Florida Panhandle than anything else. It’s basically the capital of Southern Georgia.
As the saying goes, you can’t swing a dead cat in Jacksonville without hitting a redneck.
Roll tide, roll. (Yes, I know I’m mixing my metaphors.)
Adam L Silverman
@DCrefugee: You do understand that the Florida panhandle is on the west side of the state along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and Jacksonville is several hundred miles away on the east side of Florida along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, right?
Steve in the ATL
@DCrefugee: home of Robert E. Lee High School, whose alumni include the members of Lynrd Skynrd
joel hanes
@Gindy51:
NOAA has been budget gutted for decades.
I remember a House proposal, probably during the Reagan years, to shut NOAA down completely, because there was a private-sector company [maybe Freese/Notis?] doing TV weather forecasts that should not have to experience unfair competition from the government at taxpayers’ expense. The idiot R was apparently unaware that the raw data on which the private forecasts were based came from NOAA, and thus that their profitable business would have been impossible without the government service.
I don’t think any private company does tide and surge forecasts, nor oceanic shipping weather forecasts.
(Every single time we ventured onto SF bay in the sailboat, we listened to the NOAA bulletin twice through before touching the dock lines.)
Mandalay
@Mike J:
Heh. I wish you luck with that mindset.
You seem to be desperate to find something – anything – to criticize about a web site that blows NOAA out of the water in terms of presentation.
Matt McIrvin
@Major Major Major Major: Government sites providing useful information ought to be accessible from lowest-common-denominator hardware and software setups, and also for people who have stuff turned off for security reasons. That means you can’t necessarily provide the fanciest presentation.
Major Major Major Major
@scav: This is true! But I think it’s typical of places like NOAA that none of them care enough about the website to actually do anything about it. It’s probably not a very hefty item in the budget, either.
At my think tank we have 3.5 full-time web developers for one primary website that “does things” with about 40,000 users, and several more things running on custom WordPress instances. Websites that “do things” are hard! A basic PHP site like NOAA uses is easy and will render on every browser and reader. The gulf between that and a “real” website is so big, it shouldn’t be surprising that they don’t even try.
scav
Speaking of government bureaucracies and academics, [UK] Government bars foreign academics from advising on Brexit
Brachiator
@Corner Stone:
Deceased Scalia, good! Neutered Court, bad!
It’s insane that the Court has begun this session without a ninth justice. Congress returned from a seven week break on September 6, and the House left again on Oct 1. The Senate will be on recess from Oct 8 to Nov 13, and again Nov 19 to Nov 27. They will adjourn for the year on December 16. This leaves practically no time to squeeze in a confirmation hearing.
What are the odds that these weasels would be hot to confirm Merrick Garland if Hillary wins in November? Or will they go full asswipe and try to come up with some excuse not to confirm any justice for the duration of a Clinton presidency?
hovercraft
BREAKING: @POTUS just commuted the sentences of 102 people, bringing the total to more than the past 11 presidents combined.
Chart
Progress
Corner Stone
@Mandalay:
The critique seemed pretty on point, actually.
Botsplainer
@raven:
Maybe it’ll wipe out the county offices that oversee voting in Bluffton. We can hear the wails of thousands of retired white wingnut REMFs cry out in pain as they’re deprived of the ability to cast votes for Trump…
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
I think they’ll go full asswipe, as you put it, with some flimsy partisan argument against ever letting any “Democrat” President nominate a Supreme Court justice.
joel hanes
Or will they go full asswipe and try to come up with some excuse not to confirm any justice for the duration of a Clinton presidency?
Magic 8-Ball says:
Answer depends on how badly Trump depresses the R vote for Congressional seats.
If his negative coat-tail effect is strong, they’ll probably accede.
If they keep 51+ in the Senate, they may double down on defiant nihilism.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: I’m guessing that if Republicans control the Senate when Clinton gets in, they’ll shut down not just the SCOTUS nomination, but all appointments with Senate confirmation. Hillary will have no Cabinet. And they’ll keep it going for four or eight years if they can.
They have to keep doing the thing-that-is-not-done, and this is the next great norm that they haven’t violated yet.
scav
@Major Major Major Major: there certainly is an additional virtue in writing a web-site that handles even low-end old browsers and machines in terms of reaching more of the population and under conditions where everyone starts suddenly looking, rather than showing little broken icons and complaining about flash updates or spinning loading icons during an urgent situation. Plus the whole limited budget thing.
Matt McIrvin
@Mandalay: There are ADA requirements for disabled accessibility of government websites that preclude relying entirely on something like an interactive widget. They need to at least degrade gracefully to something closer to static HTML. Given that, you can still do the fancy non-accessible thing, but it’s gravy.
dmsilev
@joel hanes: I believe that was Rick Santorum, and the idea was to keep NOAA’s data gathering in place, but only allow them to give (not sell) the data to private companies like AccuWeather rather than make the forecasts available to the general public. And, by an odd coincidence, AccuWeather was a major contributor to Santorum’s campaigns.
Shell
Hmmm, wonder if they might delay Sundays debate, if Matthew insists on wearing out its welcome. Im sure Trump won’t mind.
pseudonymous in nc
@joel hanes:
Are you thinking of pRick Santorum, who wanted to force the NWS to provide weather data to Accuweather and other private entities, but not make it available themselves in a format that the public could read?
Gindy51
@joel hanes: It was Accuweather in 2004, they wanted to take over and make everyone pay for the forecasts.
hovercraft
Pantsuits for power, Humanity for Hillary flashmob video.
Shell
I forget how Breithbart was supposed to have been murdered. Was it a poison dart or a frozen bullet?
Mandalay
@Corner Stone:
Only if you use the Internet but truly don’t allow any web sites to run scripts on your machine.
I strongly doubt that you practice what you preach.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Gin & Tonic: I got nothin. That’s just so beyond the pale, I can’t even. But I’m not the least bit surprised.
@Face: Another “I can’t even” moment for me. A “politically correct constituency” (quoted from memory)? WTF? These people are – I got no words.
Brachiator
@Face:
This is a great article, that deserves separate discussion.
Clearly, there is a call here for GOP obstructionism subsequent to a Clinton victory. It is also a great example of the tortured anti-logic that conservatives use to rationalize depriving people of their rights. For example:
Kinda begs the question of whose right is it, or whether “intimate choices” is an inalienable right.
Absolutely nutty that the author of this piece thinks that prohibiting gay marriage, or even sodomy, is somehow connected to liberty? What, a liberty to be a bigot?
hovercraft
@Shell:
All of them Katie.
Feathers
@joel hanes: That was Santorum and Accuweather during Bush II. There was a push to privatize government libraries during the Reagan years, including NOAA. The uproar was put down to silly ladies bothering their heads, until it was pointed out that historical weather data is virally important in the targeting of nuclear weapons. One of the bidders was traced through several layers of shell companies to a Swiss firm with Eastern Bloc ties. Another proposed staffing the public reading rooms with volunteers. (I guess now we would just call them interns.). Good times.
catclub
@Shell:
Fatal mullet.
Major Major Major Major
@Matt McIrvin: @scav: Absolutely, completely agree.
@Mandalay: There are people who use the Internet who aren’t me. Making everything work as well as possible 1) without javascript and 2) for readers (and other accessibility concerns) is just good information design and paramount for ‘public’-facing things like government information sites.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Anyone thinking that turnout won’t be high, or that the polls are accurately representing non-males/non-whites, have a seat. Quinnipiac tends to be conservative.
Mandalay
@Matt McIrvin:
You are presenting a false dilemma argument. There may be several explanations/justifications for why NOAA’s presention of hurricane information has not changed in ten years, but that is not one of them.
MomSense
@hovercraft:
I freaking love that video!!
Botsplainer
@Adam L Silverman:
OT – but I was thinking of your great article about human terrain and Katrina, and was reminded of a great book series called “Dave vs the Monsters”, by an Australian author named John Birmingham, who writes for the Brisbane paper.
The chief bureaucratic bad guy is a human terrain expert contracted to DOD. The tale is about the reaction of the US armed forces to an invasion by demons. It’s pretty funny.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@hovercraft: What I want – early – for my birthday (the day following a famous January day) is a pardon for Leonard Peltier.
Major Major Major Major
@Mandalay: People in freaking Haiti running IE7 probably check NOAA for mortally important updates, dude.
Corner Stone
@Mandalay: The commenter listed several distinct issues he had with promoting the private site over NOAA. It certainly was not desperate and/or wildly struggling to find something to criticize to make his point.
Now, whether javascript is your thing or not, your characterization of the critique was unsubstantiated and inaccurate.
Mandalay
@Major Major Major Major:
Sure – valid points – but this doesn’t have to be a binary choice. Keep everything the way it is, and augment it with another web site that most people will prefer to use if they want to be informed about a hurricane coming their way.
trollhattan
Windytv map of Florida is scary-dramatic.
rikyrah
Man, that picture is scary of Matthew
Brachiator
@hovercraft:
This is just too weird. There are no stories (yet) about Obama pardoning cronies or delivering on political favors to fellow Democrats. Just trying to provide justice to many people whose prison sentences were unduly harsh, based on how we now look at the law.
Damn, I love this president for his compassion and sense of justice, despite all the BS his opponents try to heap on him.
It might be fun to ask Trump what he thinks about this during the next debate.
ETA: Did you catch this week’s blackish, and it’s interesting take on the family’s affection for Obama?
joel hanes
@Mandalay:
firefox + noscript is a hassle, but worth it.
Yes, one must whitelist many modern commercial sites for them to be useful — but you’d be surprised at the number of sites that still work fine without either javascript or flash.
Major Major Major Major
@Mandalay: OK, that’s a legit suggestion. I maintain that it would be an unnecessary and probably rather costly use of government funds. Maybe somebody could take the same data and present it in a pleasing manner so NOAA doesn’t have to.
LurkerExtraordinaire
It will be interesting to see how Matthew (or the remnants of Matthew) interact with Hurricane Nicole, should Matthew loop back around and Nicole get close enough.
The Tampa Bay area hit by a Cat. 5 at high tide would be epically fucked. Pinellas County, in particular.
Mandalay
@Major Major Major Major:
A cute but empty argument. NOAA and the National Hurricane Center have far more credibility than a Czech kiter who created windytv as a “pet project”.
And there is no guarantee that windytv will even exist when the next hurricane comes, but I’m pretty sure that NOAA will be around.
raven
Big Blow Comin
Key Largo
LurkerExtraordinaire
Here’s the update on Tropical Storm Nicole:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at5+shtml/143547.shtml?5-daynl
Cat48
Ok, now I’m scared! A hit on Charleston. I live across the harbor.
Good thing we evacuated to Columbia. I have insurance, so will wait to see what we get.
Starfish
@trollhattan: Can colorblind people see that?
Major Major Major Major
@Mandalay: It’s not an empty argument. I said ‘unnecessary’, and you haven’t actually shown any need for this new website (probably because there is none). Also, government websites often have cost overruns. Fancy websites that also work on every computer are rather expensive.
Given that they could achieve your previous goal of ‘a fancy website with a boring old-timey option’ by… providing a link to windytv, or an iframe, I don’t really see what the problem is.
ETA: @Starfish: Gosh, another accessibility issue? whocoodanode.
piratedan
@Shell: think it was with the poisioned tipped umbrella, taking a nod from the Bulgars back in the Cold War days…
Brachiator
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: I liked this tidbit:
This seems to go against the argument often offered that independents are simply Republicans who won’t fess up.
raven
@Cat48: The end of “South of Broad” by Conroy is set in Charleston and Hugo.
JCJ
@Adam L Silverman:
Can’t speak for Omnes, but my part of Wisconsin (Waukesha County) is full of idiots so it is certainly possible some of them might be down there.
LurkerExtraordinaire
@Starfish: Don’t get geographers started about the use of color in maps. I could talk about it all damn day.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: I always say that independents are partisans who won’t fess up, which is consistent with the Johnson-curious diminishing and breaking for Clinton.
bemused
@hovercraft:
Love it! Liberals have more fun. Liberals are more fun.
Cat48
@raven:
I havent read that novel by Conroy. This seems the perfect time to read it.
We moved here a few years after Hugo.
nonynony
@Mandalay:
So what? The point is that NOAA’s mandate is to collect weather information and make it available to the citizens of the US (and really to the world, though I doubt Congress would see it that way). If private companies want to take NOAA data and prettify it for general consumption that’s fine – in fact it’s “job creation”.
Also if NOAA hired a web designer to do the “parallel website” you’re talking about, Congress would be on their asses for wastefraudandabuse within about 30 seconds.
scav
@LurkerExtraordinaire: And you’d have company so that’s no idle threat! (Actually personally spent slightly more personal time on cartographic symbols and cartogram etc issues myself a long time ago.) Luckily, we had a long-tenure color blind cartographic manager in the office so we could rope her in to buttress all the theoretical information others of us had. (Very handy for dealing with all those types that snuck their way into management meetings.)
Major Major Major Major
@scav: Heh, buttress
raven
@Cat48: It’s ok, pretty scattered but I read it anyway. I have HS friends who have been in Mt Pleasant for a few years.
raven
@scav: Ya’ll know abut the Sanborn fire maps.
Poopyman
Clicking on any one of the little weather station icons in Wunderground’s Wundermap will give you a short term history at that site. The data from buoy GTXF1 shows some fun graphs of pressure and wind speed since midnight.
scav
@raven: Mostly just used them / were aware of them for historical research — is there another interesting issue I’ve missed? (It’s a vast field.)
ETA: Good to seem them getting digitized. I know some of the people associated with this National Historical Geographic Information System
trollhattan
@Starfish:
Probably depends on type of colorblindness. Illustrator and Photoshop have filters showing how pages look to folks of every type. It can be designed around–whether this is I cannot say.
redshirt
@Mandalay: Thank you! You just gave me my new default weather site.
redshirt
@Matt McIrvin: I was a big fan of WU until their recent redesign, and specifically they took away historical radar data. I still use them, but not as big a fan anymore.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
Fair point. But the other consistent theme of this election are groups of voters who are deeply dissatisfied with both parties, even if for different reasons, and who have tried to build alternatives. And who knows whether someone like Johnson would find more support if he didn’t come across as a bit of a nutcase.
raven
@scav: The Georgia maps are nice and it’s good to see our house on the Athens maps.
RaflW
Open thread, so I’m gonna share this.
Seems like the dread millennials are, in fact, figuring out the election dynamics.
Though it also looks like 6 pct. are now cut loose compared to earlier (-24 for indie nutballs, +18 for major tickets). Are they gonna write in, stay home, or dither till November.
eta: I see some of this has been discussed upthread but not this age demo crosstab.
catclub
@Major Major Major Major: Back to the wombat butts, huh.
Major Major Major Major
@catclub: It’s the circle of life.
catclub
@Mandalay:
Now, NASA has a budget for public relations.
RaflW
I’ll add that if it ends up in November that Under 34s vote 20% indie, that is hardly shocking. I remember being young and disaffected once.
Feathers
OT but not OT: Was skimming through the NOAA website posts Then remembered working at a university. Used other universities websites all the time for needed information. Then, all at once every goddamned website got taken over by the marketing department and contained only information that a prospective freshman or their parents would want to see. Departmental sites with actual, useful info disappeared. Even within the university where I worked. Somebody thought that internal people would just used the intranet, forgetting that each grad school had its own intranet and that faculty do all sorts of collaborative work.
Tldr; Spend a shitload to update a website to be modern and slightly broken from the standpoint of its power users, it will just be outdated in a few years again. Keep it outdated forever and it will always be there for those who USE it.
Cheryl from Maryland
@nonynony: The other issue is what government IT allows us to use. I work for the Smithsonian, and we cannot use any software that hasn’t been “tested” by our IT department for hacking weaknesses. Of course, that “testing” worked so well at GSA, the Defense Department etc. Bottom line, any operating system, browser, software, etc. I am allowed to use is at least three versions old. We had a content management system feeding into a website that had to be “dumbed” down because the operating system was too old to handle the latest version.
Corner Stone
This idiot on MSNBC, Kerry Sanders, is literally reporting while being caught in a storm surge. He has to hold on to a telephone pole to not get sucked out to sea.
Corner Stone
What in the ever loving fuck?
Donald Trump Says Central Park Five Are Guilty, Despite DNA Evidence
“Wading into a racially-charged case from his past, Donald Trump indicated that the “Central Park Five” were guilty, despite being officially exonerated by DNA evidence decades after a notorious 1989 rape case. “
The Thin Black Duke
@Corner Stone: Truly, the Donald is the gift that keeps on giving.
bemused
@Corner Stone:
People have speculated that he really doesn’t want to be president. Maybe he doesn’t, consciously or subconsciously. I think he just wanted the publicity with some schemes to cash in on that which would be difficult if he was president. And he has had the time of his life being an asshole to just about everyone and making the media and Republican party dance for him.
Matt McIrvin
@bemused: Trump wants to BE President. He certainly wants to be elected President; it’s the winningest winning ever! He just doesn’t want to do the actual job of the President.
Brachiator
@bemused:
@Matt McIrvin:
Trump’s rise so far has been so improbable that I don’t think that anyone can say what he might do if elected.
I can only say that I have actually had a couple of nightmares where I wake up feeling anxiety about him squeaking out a victory.
PIGL
@Matt McIrvin: that’s the point where summary execution would be called for, so let’s hope we don’t have to cross that rubicon.
Simply arresting a few Rethug Senators would work, too. Both are equally unlikely. Democracy has no effective response to people like this.
JR in WV
@Mandalay:
I have to say, as a weather info buff, windytv looks pretty much information-free to me.
Swirly arrows, What The FQ do they mean?
Nothing, to me.