2025-01-03 10:07:00
Filip Shatlan and Diana Engelmann
Gainesville, Florida , United States
United States
NOAA-19
Hurricane Idalia has haunted several conversations with locals on the west coast of Florida. In Crystal River, a sleepy seaside town known for its warm springs and manatees, the severity of Idalia was attributed to “a trifecta: king tide, full moon, west wind”. This phrase stayed with me as the New Year passed and the holidays drew to a close. Before spending time in Florida, I had little knowledge of the diversity of hurricanes and which local conditions affected their impact. Hurricane Helene apparently was a “muddy one” as it dragged up tons of mud into houses, streets and dry surfaces, and so repair was even more laborious. I heard the same person from Crystal River say that “because hurricanes tend to hit at night, you never know what’s around you”. They were pointing to Christmas Island, a small patch of land in the middle of the mouth of the river that had been the site of a single house before Idalia- after the storm hit, locals could only make out the Christmas lights strung up around the darkened house, hence its name. It was bought and rebuilt in 2024, right before Helene hit, and now stands crumbling and empty. We also passed a line up of sail boats in the rivermouth, two of which had sunk during Helene, their sailing masts pointing out of the water crookedly. “They didn’t tie up properly for the hurricane” we learned. Yet dozens of other boats were peacefully anchored adjacent and around the sunken ones. Their owners had stayed on their boats during the storm.
2024-10-09 12:50:19
Sasha Engelmann
Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
NOAA-18
"Even though it looks beautiful, this is very bad, this will cause a lot of damage" says a forecaster of Hurricane Milton in one of many livestreamed weather reports I consult throughout the day. He repeats this phrase several times, as if he has to convince himself that it is true. Yet he still calls Milton 'healthy' as he describes its current trajectory and form. I learn that Milton has an 'eye' or 'core' that is among the smallest ever recorded - only about 4 miles across - and this is one of the reasons its effects could be so devastating. Another forecaster uses the metaphor of an ice skater doing a spin and hugging their arms closer to their body, therefore spinning faster. A very different set of affects was offered by John Morales, a Puerto-Rico raised, Florida-based meteorologist and weather forecaster for 30+ years, who became emotional on live television yesterday while describing the fact that the pressure in Hurricane Milton had dropped 50 millibars in ten hours. Morales takes a deep, shaky breath and continues 'this is just horrific'. The video circulates widely on social media. As the hurricane moves north, its proximity to the jet stream will cause wind shear, and some of its 'arms' will 'tear to shreds' according to another newscaster. The storm will likely downgrade to a level 3 hurricane by the time it meets land. But this does not mean it will be weaker or cause less damage, as the weaker storm-system will become wider, potentially affecting much more of Florida. The jet stream will not remove enough 'arms' to reduce the storm's strength. The site of landfall remains uncertain, with some forecasts suggesting the beach of Tampa, where the consequences in terms of storm surge and infrastructure would be catastrophic, while others suggesting it may land further south. It is both fascinating and terrifying that less than twelve hours away from 'landing', the landing-site is still unknown. To follow Milton in all of these ways is thus to process an extreme set of affects, prognoses, visualisations and predictions - everything from figure skater metaphors to public displays of despair. I make a special trip to the park for a satellite pass that is quite far to the west of London, over the Atlantic. I try to stabilise my experience of Milton by 'seeing' some of the weather in its proximity, the cloud systems and extra-tropical cyclones that are somehow linked to Milton's energetic core.