To see a more detailed image of Tropical Storm Paula click

Keith

Keith, lol Paula's gonna get you!

Paula, If you see this, "you" are forecast to move around sort of aimlessly in the Caribbean Sea, although there's a chance you'll be torn apart by wind shear, or you could lose strength over the Yucatan peninsula and then re-emerge and re-strengthen or you may spend a few days in the Caribbean and then head towards Florida. There's even an outside chance you'll meander past Florida and then become a nor'easter as you travel up the Atlantic coast. Isn't all of that exciting? (And you thought you'd just be doing the usual commute from home to work and back again, didn't you? Not this week! This week you're a traveling woman.)

You might as well be a tropical adventurer this week because, in gardening terms, this is a quiet time.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Floater Image of the other Paula (not OUR Paula)

OMG.....I've been accused of "tearing thru like a tornado"...but this is "my" first tropical storm!! My sisters (Pam, Penny & Petrina) will be jealous!! hehe!

Keith - I only wish I could have appeared that menacing when I was raising my daughters! Wouldn't THAT have been a good discipline tool? LOL!!!

Dawn - isn't that just like "me" to make sure "I" have options? ha! Wish I could will it to at least send a small band of rain here. We barely got any Sunday night. We're in the process of cleaning and preparing the ground for next year. This sandy soil now is almost like cement. I'm going to have to water the okra plants just to get them out of the ground!

Oh No. DH heard about this storm and you can just imagine the ribbing I'm getting from him. oh boy.....

Paula

Paula (the storm) is now a Category One hurricane in the northwestern Caribbean Sea.

Where is Paula (the storm) headed? It is too early to have much confidence in the various longer-term tracks shown by computer models, but this evening (local time) she'll be approaching Cozumel.

Unfortunately, this storm is too far from the Texas gulf coast to send plumes of tropical moisture to OK like Hermine did last month. So, there's not really any hope at all for drought relief here from Hurricane Paula. (That kind of moisture from tropical cyclone remnants generally hits OK in Aug. or Sept. if it comes here at all, but not in Oct. that I can remember.)
Paula, I hope y'all get rain up there soon as you've been too dry too long. I cannot imagine you having to water your sandy soil in order to soften it up enough so you can pull out the okra plants. Your sisters will have to remain jealous, lol, because I checked all six years of Atlantic tropical cyclone names, and none of their names are on the list. Tell your DH to behave himself and not tease Hurricane Paula too much or you'll get mad and intensify, becoming a Cat. 2 hurricane.

I was looking at the Mesonet rainfall data yesterday and noticed that, even though I feel like we have had a lot of rainfall here in Love County, our Mesonet station shows us to be on track for only an 'average' or 'slightly below average' year and not a wet year. However, our particular part of Love County has had a lot more rain than our Mesonet station has recorded. Without the moisture from the remnants of Hermine, though, we'd be way below average.

To have as many abnormally dry/droughty areas as we have scattered around Oklahoma right now with us headed into a La Nina winter is not good at all. And, for me, down here in normally parched southcentral OK, having tons of rain in July and in Sept. is just odd, odd, odd.

One day, when we're talking about fire danger (probably on the day the NWS issues the autumn's or winter's first Red Flag Fire Warning), I'll explain how all the July and Sept. moisture could backfire on Love County and make us more, not less, likely to have a bad winter wildfire year. (I don't want to think about that yet.)

Dawn

Paula,
Whatever you do, puh-leeze stay away from the Atlantic coast. Our very good friends are leaving in the morning for a fall foliage cruise off the eastern coastline and we are all hoping for beautiful weather for their trip. Not to wish bad weather on anyone else, of course, but the farther away you are from the Atlantic coast, the better :).

Suzie

Paula has been upgraded to a Cateogry Two hurricane, so y'all be careful and don't make her mad.

Suzie, I think your friends crusie is safe from Paula. She's going to play around in the northwestern Caribbean Sea for a day or two at least before she heads north or northeast or east.

Now, if your friends were headed for Cancun or Cozumel right now, they might run into Paula.

I hope Paula behaves herself. She has intensified rather rapidly, but at least she is a small hurricane, so her damage will cover a smaller area.

And, still no chance of Paula bringing rain to our Paula's garden either!

Paula's husband emailed me last night. He objects to the title of this thread. He insists the word HAS should be replaced with IS.

Just the messenger.

I won't shoot the messenger.

To humor Paula's DH, I edited the title of this follow-up post, but there's no way to go back and edit the original subject of a thread once it is submitted.

Paula is a small (hurricane force winds extend outward only about 15 miles) but powerful hurricane (winds near the center are about 100 mph) and is struggling with wind shear, which is attempting to tear her apart as she makes her way towards Cuba. Her power likely has peaked and she will begin to weaken soon (talking about Hurricane Paula, not P-Mac). At one time, Hurricane Paula had an eye that was more square than round. That's a neat trick. Paula also formed and intensified rapidly but now is encountering somewhat hostile conditions, including some dry air and wind shear.

Paula is expected to bring heavy rain to portions of Cuba and also may bring some wind and rain to portions of Florida, most likely down south in the Florida Keys.

Hurricane Paula, just like our own forum member Paula, is strong and powerful, but kind, having wreaked relatively little havoc so far.

Next up after Paula will be Richard, with development coming perhaps as early as next week.

You can tell it is autumn and the garden season is coasting to a 'close'.....we're talking more about weather and earthquakes than gardening. : )

Of course, weather is always relevant to gardening and, well, none of us wants for a nasty little earthquake to leave a faultline running right through our yards and gardens.

Just for fun, I linked the list of Atlantic Hurricane names so all of you can look and see if your turn is coming soon. I don't see a lot of names on the Hurricane List that match up with real people here at this forum, though.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Six-Year List of Atlantic Hurricane Names

How'd I miss my hurricane? This was my year :)

Lisa,

It's all about timing. Your hurricane formed right in the middle of a remarkable run of, I think, 8 named tropical cyclones in September 2010. With such a long run of named storms forming rapidly one after another, I think your hurricane got lost in the crowd. Sorry.

Your hurricane formed way out there in the Atlantic and stayed way out there so it didn't get a lot of U. S. media attention. You formed from a low pressure system that came off the coast of Africa near the Cape Verde islands.

For a while, tropical weather watchers weren't sure you'd make it up to hurricane strength, but you did, becoming a Category One hurricane with a small pinhole eye. You were forming in the Atlantic as Karl was winding down in the Caribbean.

If you'd like to read more about your hurricane, you can click on the link to Wikipedia below.

Don't worry....we'll just wait another six years for your name to be used again. They recycle the current naming lists, except that countries can petition for a storm name to be retired if that particular storm was a traumatic one for that nation's people. Since you were a nice hurricane in 2010, your name is at no risk of being retired.

It's a good thing we don't name tornadoes or earthquakes in this state, because if we did, it is likely we'd run out of names.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: 2010 Hurricane Data

Dawn, lol, thanks! That's me, hiding out in the Atlantic! Except, I'm pretty sure I would prefer the Pacific...better islands, I think!

Lisa

Lisa, At least your hurricane didn't hurt a lot of people. Don't you think that "Hurricane Lisa" sounds too nice to be a killer storm? So does "Hurricane Paula". Now, for an ominous-sounding hurricane, we had "Hurricane Igor". He just sounds evil, doesn't he?

This morning, by the way, Hurricane Paula is being torn apart by wind shear but still is expected to drop a lot of rain in the Cuba---Key West, Florida, area.

And, for Suzie....if your friends on the fall foliage cruise are off the Atlantic coast of the NE USA, there's a nor'easter brewing there. As Roseann Roseannadanna used to say "It's always something".

Here we sit way too dry, though, in Oklahoma, and I noticed this morning that many of the southern states have much worse drought-conditions than the drought-plagued portions of Oklahoma have at the present time. Both Louisiana and Mississippi are so dry that they now have state-wide burn bans, similar to what we had in Oklahoma in either 2005 or 2006. It is hard to keep your landscape healthy, happy and looking good when it gets that dry, especially if water restrictions accompany the burn bans.

Dawn

Tropical Storm Paula is being torn apart by wind shear in the Cuba/Florida Keys area and probably will drop to Tropical Depression status soon as she continues to dissipate. She was a small hurricane and mostly remained at sea, so very few areas received very high wind or lots of rain from Paula.

Apparently Hurricane Paula was just as kind and sweet as our P-Mac.

Dawn

Dawn,
Friday morning the weatherman on The Early Show was live from the New Hampshire coast, and it looked like that nor'easter was doing a good job of making a big mess of the weather, and the waves were huge. It looks like our friends may not be in for a lucky break on this trip, at least the first part of it. The cruise travels up the coast along New England and Canada. Yep, it's always something alright!

Suzie

Suzie,

I was worried about their route and the nor'ester. I sure hope it doesn't ruin their trip.

Also, the leaves are finally starting to show some color here at our end of the state although so far it is not spectacular color. Well, the poison ivy has spectacular red and so does the sumac, but I don't think that's a lot to brag about. Still, any color is nice to see.

Hey, the BCS numbers are out and OU is #1. Now that's something to brag about, isn't it?

Dawn

Dawn,
YES!!!!! This is a great boost for OU, especially considering the ups and downs (mostly downs) they experienced last year. With both OU football and watching the Yankees and Rangers, this is a fun time of year. I've been a Yankees fan sort of out of sentimental reasons; it was my Grandpa's favorite team and I have such vivid memories of him watching the games on the old black and white television set, sitting on his ottoman pulled right up in front of the TV. But I'm so excited for the Rangers making it to the play-offs and this time I'm rooting for them! Can't wait to see Cliff Lee pitching tonight. He's something else.

Suzie

Suzie,

It has been a great couple of months to be a sports fan, at least if you ignore the performance this year of the Dallas Cowboys. It is wonderful to see OU, OSU and TCU doing so well and it makes for lots of memorable games to watch every weekend.

We've been Texas Rangers fans ever since they moved to Arlington when I was 11 or 12 years old and we've suffered through lots of bad seasons and enjoyed a few good ones, but this is by far the best. Cliff Lee is amazing and I hope the Rangers are able to sign him to a long-term contract after the season ends.

Dawn

Dawn,
Well this is looking like it may be the Rangers year!! They played so well tonight. We missed the first part of the game because we were at our granddaughter's softball banquet, but have been glued to the TV since we got home. What a great game!

Suzie