Let the tasteless jokes begin...the NHC expects this one to develop slowly but they've adjusted the track more to the west. Still no indication that Debby will be hitting land, but she certainly does have the chance to become our first hurricane of the year in the North Atlantic.
Meanwhile, when it comes to fun with hurricanes, I note this letter in the Pensacola News Journal:
Let's try bombing storms
Some years back I read a novel which told the story of an English sea captain who, with his daughter and crew, were sailing to Australia. At one point a waterspout was in the ship's path so the captain had the crew lash him to the foremast with a rifle in his hand, and they went below. When the spout was almost on the ship, the captain fired several shots into it and the sound broke up the spout.
Now, why can't we send a squadron of bombers into the hurricane's eye when it forms over open waters, bomb several quadrants of the eye and break it up? The cost will be millions less that the cost of damage caused by the storm, plus save many lives.
-- Alex Zelius III
Pensacola
Now, this is hilarious on so many levels I don't even know where to begin...using the novel as evidence, comparing hurricanes to waterspouts...but funniest of all is that this guy doesn't even have the imagination to come up with the perennial dumb idea of using nukes to blow up hurricanes. He thinks ordinary bombers will do the job. Given the devastation caused in Pensacola by Ivan and Dennis in the last two years, isn't it a bit insulting to think that hurricanes can be dismantled with mere bombing raids?
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Ok, how about this:
(a) Tow a large supply of icebergs from around greenland to a holding area on the gulf coast. Coat them with aluminum foil to stop them melting.
(b) When a hurricane moves into the Gulf, simply (!) tow a number of 'bergs into the most likely path of the storm.
(c) Nuke them to break them up (Yay! Nukes!), thus creating a large area of cold water.
(d) Swear loudly when said hurricane veers around the area of cold water and takes out half of texas anyway.
brilliant!
I read a story where some guys built a vehicle that tunnelled into the Earth and emerged at the world inside the hollow globe. They saw dinosaurs and things. Can't we do the same thing to study paleontology and evolution?
I think the third Zelius needs to reconsider his sources of education, much like all the folks who learned physics from watching Road Runner and Bugs Bunny cartoons.
I wrote about attempts to use sound energy to break up hail-producing thunderstorms over Colorado lettuce fields here:
http://scienceblogs.com/nosenada/2006/08/weather_mod_shenanigans_on_the…
The unfortunate thing (I mentioned it, but didn't get into it in detail) is that the State Climatologist of Colorado has agreed to spend state money to actually research the efficacy of the technique (despite the fact that WMO has already ridiculed the idea).
I get bombed every Friday night, and I'm happy to report that no hurricane has ever developed around me. Now that's science!!!