The Meandering Fay and a Tip from Ferber

2008 Hurricane Watch

My hurricane report each Wednesday is essentially a recap of a daily log I keep during hurricane season. The first hint of Fay was reported in my entry Monday August 11th, and that was not much of a clue: ‘Atlantic Basin and Eastern Caribbean shows showers and thunderstorm activity – nothing more.’
The Tuesday entry added a bit of drama: ‘Keep an eye on a system located 600 miles east of the Lesser Antilles – low pressure, cloudy, rain and thunderstorms.’
Last Wednesday’s post ended with this: ‘Tropical system continues to grow in area now located 300 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. Watch and wait.
The following day the system was called a tropical disturbance located 175 miles east of the Leeward Islands with rain, thunderstorms and all indications are for further development. On Friday the 15th the tropical disturbance was near Puerto Rico and moving west toward Hispaniola. Expect heavy rains and flooding.
Saturday morning that disturbance was named Tropical Storm Fay and was located just west of Haiti about 50 miles south southeast of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Maximum winds 45 mph. The forward motion of the storm was 15 mph.
Sunday morning Tropical Storm Fay brushed past Cape Cruse, Cuba early in the day with sustained winds of 50 mph. Fay was causing heavy rains in Cuba, Jamaica and the north Cayman Islands and moving west by northwest at 15 mph.
Monday at 11:00 am EDT Fay was located 70 miles southeast of Key West showing maximum sustained winds of 60 mph and moving north northwest at 13 mph.
Later that afternoon and into the night Fay moved past Key West and meandered up the south west coast of Florida, slogging along the old Tamiami Trail, before veering to the right near Naples and heading into the Everglades, carrying winds of 60 mph.
On Tuesday morning August 19th Fay was moving over the Everglades and was located about 30 miles east of Fort Myers.
Today, Wednesday morning the 20th at 5:00 am EDT Tropical Storm Fay was located 15 miles south of Cape Canaveral carrying winds of 50 mph and moving north at a slow 7 miles per hour meaning lots of rain for folks around the Cape.
A Tropical Storm warning remains in effect for the East Coast of Florida and extending north to Georgia’s Savannah River.
To get current information on Fay and other weather forecasts Click Here.

The Hurricane Season was active back in August of 1945:
Excerpt from The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in The Bermuda Triangle.

The fourth event of the season started out as a tropical depression reported on August 17th in the Eastern Caribbean off the Leeward Islands. Squadron 114’s first contact with the storm was made some ninety miles southeast of St. Croix. Once the parameters and direction was established, they flashed warnings to St. Croix, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico and all other stations in the Virgin Island chain.
The following day a second patrol unit intercepted the now designated Tropical Storm IV’s path as it beat its way toward the Southern Bahamas packing winds of sixty miles per hour. The storm continued unabated past Turks Island, Acklins Island and Albert Town where its progress stalled for nearly twenty-four hours. A high-pressure ridge had moved in on a line approximately north northeast and south southwest of George Town. And for some reason¸ possibly having to do with the pressure system and erratic upper winds, the storm lost its forward momentum on August 21st where it stalled and fell apart in the Southern Bahamas.

Writers Corner:
Edna Ferber, one of the Algonquin Round Table regulars was a talented and versatile writer. She teamed up with Round Table regular George S. Kaufman to write comedy and among Ferber’s many credits she wrote three major novels Giant, Cimarron and Show Boat, all of which became successful films.
Many Edna Ferber stories were based on her life experience. She related this one in one of her two autobiographies A Peculiar Treasure when she said, ‘In the beginning chapters of the novel Show Boat there is a description of the Mississippi at flood time. I found that I did not need to consult books or ask old timers to relate their river experiences. I just took my childhood memories of the Mississippi and the Des Moines at flood time out of the back of my head where they had been neatly stored for so many years and penned them down on paper.’
Hey writers, when stuck with that same kind of problem dig into the nooks and crannies of your personal library – you might be surprised what’s stored there.

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com