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A Hurricane of Hype
Minneapolis StarTribune ^

Posted on 08/28/2011 6:28:09 AM PDT by kelsiejackson

It's a hurricane, not Armageddon. Good grief. A Category 1 storm, you'd think "Irene" was the worst storm America has ever endured.

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: hurricane; hype; irene
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To: dirtboy; mojitojoe

Uhhhh....the title of the thread is Hurricane of Hype.

Go back to the victims on parade thread, buddy.


241 posted on 08/28/2011 2:00:13 PM PDT by GatorGirl (Herman Cain 2012)
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To: mojitojoe
And mojitoejoe, making the outrageous claim that the NHC was lying about the barometric pressure of a storm over land where citizens with their own barometers could and did report the pressure they were seeing.

You're a real classy representative of your band of fellow second-guessers. A real know-nothing naysayer making a stupid, easily-refuted accusation.

I'm glad Irene's winds were not a large-scale problem. The rains are another story, there are some record flood levels on streams in the Philly area and elsewhere. The point is, Irene was unpredictable and therefore precautions were a good idea. A guy like you was probably advising his neighbors in the 9th ward in 2005 that they really didn't need to evacuate, because look how many times the forecasters got it wrong in the past.

242 posted on 08/28/2011 2:04:11 PM PDT by dirtboy
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To: GatorGirl

Go suck eggs. I’ll post here if I feel like it. Someone has to point out that hurricanes are unpredictable and folks who thought they knew better were the ones who drowned in NOLA.


243 posted on 08/28/2011 2:05:32 PM PDT by dirtboy
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To: dirtboy

Anyone with 1/2 a brain could tell Katrina was going to be bad and if I were living in a city below sea level protected only by unpredictable levees of course I’d get the heck out.

But anyone with 1/2 a brain could also tell that Irene was going to turn out to be a wet dud.

No one is going to stink up a thread on hype by pointing out that the whole thing was....hype.


244 posted on 08/28/2011 2:17:16 PM PDT by GatorGirl (Herman Cain 2012)
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To: dirtboy
dirt-dude, I slept with my life vest on, so chances of drownin' were pretty remote! And I live at the base of Ragged Mountain, so no hurricane coming through this part of Connecticut, bucko!


245 posted on 08/28/2011 2:19:34 PM PDT by campaignPete R-CT (Palin '12 begins in '11. In western New Hampshire pour moi.)
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To: kelsiejackson
Well, here's the deal.

Bush and Rove, (Evil Republicans - are there any other type of Republicans?), had a Hurricane Machine that targeted Democrat strongholds such as New Orleans. In order to enhance the damage from the Hurricanes, Bush and Rove would send out Killer Robots to blow up the Levees and Flood Control Infrastructure to make things even worse.

When Obama took over, he sent Reggie Love down to the catacombs below the White House to find the mythical Bush / Rove Hurricane Machine. With the help of Bo, the Obama’s exceptionally talented Dog, Reggie was able to sniff out the location of the machine.

Obama, a very caring, smart and thoughtful Leader, (did I mention magnanimous?), wanted to utilize the Hurricane Machine as a force for good, or is it a force for what's good for you? (Doesn't matter, it's the thought that counts).

Obama and his crack advisers, Biden, Wright and Ayers developed a strategy to use the machine at minimum power while telling the Sycophant Press that the pending doom of Hurricane Irene would be Historical in its threat to humanity and kittens that populate the East Coast.

One the dye was cast, the Media performed their duties without hesitation and regret. Reporters standing in 6" puddles, hoping for Tsunami like waves to wash over them, (or raw sewage), and those same reporters getting a tingle down their legs as the Dear Leader took personal control of the situation without having to be dragged off the Golf Course like he did when Seal Team Six took out OBL. There wasn't a Golf Shirt in sight as Obama got behind the pink microphone to assure the Nation that he was reversing his vast experience of creating chaos to save us all from certain death and wet shoes and socks.

I don't know about you, but I have been mesmerized by the can do, damn the torpedoes actions of the One. He is truly a Gift from Allah...

246 posted on 08/28/2011 3:28:18 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative (If Sarah Palin was President, you would have a job by now.)
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To: rockabyebaby

The HYPE is political, mr. ridiculous!

The storm didn’t merit all political speeches and the news coverage was overblown!


247 posted on 08/28/2011 4:18:10 PM PDT by G Larry (I dream of a day when a man is judged by the content of his character)
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Comment #248 Removed by Moderator

Comment #249 Removed by Moderator

Comment #250 Removed by Moderator

To: rockabyebaby

Transformers never blow unless there is a tropical storm? Hogwash. They blow sometimes when there is no rain at all. You have never heard a boom then had your lights flicker, brown out or power outage? It happens.


251 posted on 08/28/2011 5:03:13 PM PDT by mojitojoe (WH says potus didnÂ’t feel the earthquake. No worries. Another is scheduled for November 2012)
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To: Dr. Scarpetta

we deal with snowstorms all winter
___________________
Hey, I will be honest and say emphatically that I wouldn’t want to deal with it, wouldn’t deal with it. I spent a couple of months visiting a friend in Chicago one winter. I think I saw the sun maybe 2-3 days, enough snow, mud and dirty streets to last me a lifetime. Haven’t been up north in the winter since then, don’t intend to. Besides in the winter all the northerners are down here occupying my guest rooms to escape that crap.


252 posted on 08/28/2011 5:06:37 PM PDT by mojitojoe (WH says potus didnÂ’t feel the earthquake. No worries. Another is scheduled for November 2012)
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To: GatorGirl

It is worth it and I wish I didn’t have to worry about they every summer but I wouldn’t change a thing. I love living in paradise. I love living on the water and I am aware of the fact that if you live on the water, you will eventually at one time or another be in the water. I’ve had it on the house 2 times, approaching it several times. Thankfully the winds shifted the tides subsided and damage other than landscaping was slight. Expensive repairs and re-dos but the house was standing and fine.

I pray that we never get that cat 5 here, it will be bad, really bad. We will evacuate but not sure what I would have to come home to if a cat 5’s eye hit us.


253 posted on 08/28/2011 5:15:29 PM PDT by mojitojoe (WH says potus didnÂ’t feel the earthquake. No worries. Another is scheduled for November 2012)
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To: dirtboy; GatorGirl; Las Vegas Ron; bushpilot1; rodguy911; LucyT

Now on Monday, instead of devastating hurricane news we get stories like this, amazing isn’t it?

National Hurricane Center Gets Defensive:

On the negative side, the forecast after Irene hit the Bahamas had it staying as a Category 3 and possibly increasing to a Category 4. But it weakened and hit as a Category 1 storm and stayed that way up the coast until it faded into a tropical storm by the time it reached New York City. It lost strength as it moved north over land and cooler water.

Read said they will go back and figure out what happened, but noted they have made huge strides in projecting where a hurricane will hit. In past storms, they would have issued warnings for Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, but there were no evacuations there for Irene.

“We’re not completely sure how the interplay of various features is causing the strength of a storm to change,” Read said.

One theory is that a storm’s strength is dependent on the storm’s inner core. Irene never had a classic, fully formed eye wall - even going through the Bahamas as a Category 3.

“Why it did that, we don’t know,” Read said. “That’s a gap in the science.”

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110828/D9PDAF0O0.html

Hurricane Lost Steam as Experts Misjudged Structure and Next Move

All hurricanes evolve, and most weaken, as they track northward, their size and strength affected by water, wind and terrain. And all hurricanes eventually die — a relatively quick downgrade to a tropical storm in the case of those, like Irene, that travel inland, a more lingering demise for those that trail out to the colder waters of the higher latitudes.

But Irene’s fall — from potential storm of the century to an also-ran in hurricane lore — was greater than most.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/us/29forecast.html?_r=1&partner=MYWAY&ei=5065

Perfect Storm of Hype: Politicians, the media and the Hurricane Irene apocalypse that never was

For the television reporter, clad in his red cagoule emblazoned with the CNN logo, it was a dramatic on-air moment, broadcasting live from Long Island, New York during a hurricane that also threatened Manhattan.

“We are in, right, now…the right eye wall, no doubt about that…there you see the surf,” he said breathlessly. “That tells a story right there.”

Stumbling and apparently buffeted by ferocious gusts, he took shelter next to a building. “This is our protection from the wind,” he explained. “It’s been truly remarkable to watch the power of the ocean here.”

The surf may have told a story but so too did the sight behind the reporter of people chatting and ambling along the sea front and just goofing around. There was a man in a t-shirt, a woman waving her arms and then walking backwards. Then someone on a bicycle glided past.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100102355/perfect-storm-of-hype-politicians-the-media-and-the-hurricane-irene-apocalypse-that-never-was/

“Scientist mocks: Phony “hurricane” coming on shore with 33mph winds”.

http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/noaas-phony-hurricane-coming-on-shore-with-33-mph-winds/

Forecaster: ‘Hype over Hurricane Irene overblown’...

https://www.gplus.com/Hurricanes/Insight/The-storm-cannot-master-its-own-strength

CATEGORY FEH: So, why the big Irene blowup?

Jason Samenow, chief meteorologist with the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang, which is receiving kudos for its accurate and restrained reporting, said last night that some cable anchors were still reporting that Irene could strike New Jersey and New York as a major hurricane long after his team determined that it clearly was weakening.

“You want to raise awareness of the possible worst-case scenarios in order to take the storm seriously - but in order to do so some media outlets resort to hysteria and hype,” Samenow said. He added that such reporting can be spun as a public service even as fear and hype drive the ultimate real goal of any for-profit venture like the Weather Channel (owned by Philadelphia’s Comcast), which is higher ratings.

“The gulf between informing people and exploiting this is very, very wide,” agreed Jeff Jarvis, director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at City University of New York and a well-known media critic.

But there were lots of mixed motives here. Journalists wanted higher ratings and maybe a career-making story (remember, CNN’s Cooper got a prime-time gig for his wrenching Katrina coverage in 2005) - while politicians wanted to keep citizens safe but also boost their flagging poll numbers.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110829_CATEGORY_FEH__So__why_the_big_Irene_blowup_.html

U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday warned that flooding from Hurricane Irene could worsen as rivers flood their banks and said federal recovery efforts would last a few weeks.

“I want people to understand this is not over,” Obama said in an appearance at the White House. “Response and recovery efforts will be an ongoing operation.”

ROFLMAO!!!!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/28/storm-irene-obama-statement-idUSN1E77R0EA20110828


254 posted on 08/29/2011 8:58:21 AM PDT by mojitojoe (WH says potus didnÂ’t feel the earthquake. No worries. Another is scheduled for November 2012)
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To: dirtboy; GatorGirl; driftdiver

Bottom line is, we will never know whey their barometers showed a number that did not coincide with the strength, they don’t even have an explanation. Incorrect readings or...?
Regardless, my point all along was that the storm was not what they were saying it was, not a cat1, not as strong. Hurricanes categories are determined by wind speeds, they were wrong. Satellite photos clearly showed a deteriorating storm as in encountered dry air entrainment and southwesterly sheer. It MIGHT have been a cat 1 when it first hit NC, although I doubt it. After that it was never more than a TS and TD. It is obvious and the facts cannot be concealed now.

I was right, you were wrong, admit it.

Irene Forecasters Got Storm Path Right While Missing Hurricane’s Intensity

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-28/irene-s-forecasters-got-storm-s-path-timing-right-while-missing-intensity.html

Only Two Locations Had 85 MPH Gusts

NOAA said that maximum average wind speeds at landfall were 85 MPH, hurricane winds stretching outwards for 90 miles. In fact, only two locations even had gusts over 85 MPH.
The 115 MPH is a mathematical outlier from a “trained spotter” – which is not credible and should be thrown out. The nearby weather station at Beaufort, NC, had a max speed of 53 MPH and peak gust of 70 MPH.

http://www.real-science.com/uncategorized/locations-85-mph-gusts

Keep this in mind too, waiting for you to stickup for this nutcase:

Obama nominated global warning nut, Jane Lubchenco to head NOAA. She is “ deeply concerned” about climate change and overfishing.” Lubchenco oversees federal regulation of oceans (including issues such as coral reef and marine sanctuary protection), satellite operations, weather prediction (including global warming science) and fish harvests. Trust her and the people that work under her, no and hell no.


255 posted on 08/29/2011 9:09:33 AM PDT by mojitojoe (WH says potus didnÂ’t feel the earthquake. No worries. Another is scheduled for November 2012)
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To: dirtboy

Great, you live in a flat state with no terrain.
______________________________________________

Define terrain please. You stated Florida has no terrain. Define it.


256 posted on 08/29/2011 9:20:30 AM PDT by mojitojoe (WH says potus didnÂ’t feel the earthquake. No worries. Another is scheduled for November 2012)
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To: dirtboy; GatorGirl

Great, you live in a flat state with no terrain.
______________________________________________

Define terrain please. You stated Florida has no terrain. Define it. Let me clue you in, we have terrain. We have the Everglades, we have the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay coastal areas, we have beaches on both sides of the state all the way from the state lines to the end of the road at Key West. We have coral reefs and fishing you could only dream about. We can go out and catch lobster for dinner, or Grouper, Snapper, Mahi Mahi(Dolphin)etc. I can catch snapper and Grouper right out my back door. We have forests in the central part of the state and some areas around there are a little hilly.

Now let me know whatcha got up there.


257 posted on 08/29/2011 9:24:55 AM PDT by mojitojoe (WH says potus didnÂ’t feel the earthquake. No worries. Another is scheduled for November 2012)
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To: mojitojoe
Once again, you are mixing up wind speed and barometric pressure.

And Irene remained a Cat 1 all the way up to the NJ coast, so it did not drop dignificantly in wind strength from the strength it was at in Carolina. Oh, and terrain? Get a book. Look at pictures of Pennsylvania and Vermont. See those funny things covered with trees? They're called mountains. Hills. Terrain that magnifies runoff and turns what would be a trivial tropical storm in your neck of the woods into a serious flooding matter. Maybe you could see the news of the flooding of Vermont. A creek nearby me hit its record flood stage of all time.

Oh, and I am not defending the head of the NHC, just the scientists doing their job while taking pot shots from false accusation specialists such as yourself.

You may have the last word, since you seem to be hyperventilating and drooling at this point. Not good for your blood pressure.

258 posted on 08/29/2011 9:56:16 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: mojitojoe
Once again, you are mixing up wind speed and barometric pressure.

And Irene remained a Cat 1 all the way up to the NJ coast, so it did not drop dignificantly in wind strength from the strength it was at in Carolina. Oh, and terrain? Get a book. Look at pictures of Pennsylvania and Vermont. See those funny things covered with trees? They're called mountains. Hills. Terrain that magnifies runoff and turns what would be a trivial tropical storm in your neck of the woods into a serious flooding matter. Maybe you could see the news of the flooding of Vermont. A creek nearby me hit its record flood stage of all time.

Oh, and I am not defending the head of the NHC, just the scientists doing their job while taking pot shots from false accusation specialists such as yourself.

You may have the last word, since you seem to be hyperventilating and drooling at this point. Not good for your blood pressure.

259 posted on 08/29/2011 9:56:16 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: mojitojoe

Thanks mojitojoe.

I’ve posted this several times but it does bear repeating. Once Irene left the Bahamas she never had a “hurricane” look to it. No full rotation and clearly defined eyewall. Sure the Bahamas suffered some wind damage, but we get violent thunderstorms here that cause damage practically on a weekly basis, albeit shorter in duration.

I’m no scientist but as a Floridian I’ve been watching the tropics for my whole adult life. I can’t imagine that you, and I, and others, were more correct than the professionals. This was a TS and a very wet TD. Sorry about the flooding and the deaths but all the hysterical hurricane stuff was nonsense from the get-go.


260 posted on 08/29/2011 10:16:10 AM PDT by GatorGirl (Herman Cain 2012)
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