Well, not really panic, but finally there is an update from the NHC that starts to justify the hype. (Well, OK, the charts below came out about 3 hours ago, but I was at dinner…) Lets see, where are we…

OK, that’s the odds of hurricane force winds map. Where does that put us?

• NC Coast: 30% to 60% depending where on the coast
• Jersey Shore: 5% to 15% depending where on the coast
• NYC: 5% to 10%
• Boston: 5%
• DC, Baltimore, Philly, Maine Coast: <5%

Now, 5% doesn’t sound like much, but it means there is a 1 in 20 shot of getting hit by some really violent weather, and that is nothing to sneeze at or take likely. Yes, it means there is a 95% chance it WON’T happen, but if the 5% does happen, it would be pretty bad, so you take it seriously. Not to mention the 30% to 60% on the NC coast. And those are the odds at particular points, the odds that SOMEWHERE on the NC coast will get hurricane force winds are probably over 90% at this point. So the evacuations in NC are definitely justified, and NYC and Boston most likely are as well. But I hear they are waiting to make a decision on FRIDAY. What, are they waiting until there is more than a 50% chance? That would be too late for most people to get out.

And of course, aside from the hurricane force winds, there is a much larger area with a good shot at tropical storm force winds…

And where to our lovely locations look on this front?

• NC Coast: 90%+ along the whole coast. No question they are getting at least TS force winds
• Jersey Shore: 55% to 70% depending where on the coast
• NYC: About 55%
• DC, Baltimore, Philly, Boston: All about 50%
• Maine Coast: 30% to 50% depending where on the coast

All very much not to sneeze at. And of course that is just winds. It looks like depending on how this plays out, storm surge might be more significant.

Or of course it could just veer out to sea. But that is looking increasingly unlikely. What the news reports are hyping is true, this has the POTENTIAL to cause a lot of problems and be very serious. Which places get hit and how hard of course is very hard to predict, which is always the trouble with these things. Most of the places I listed above will probably dodge the worst of this thing. But at least NC is likely to get hammered pretty good, and most likely at least one of the other places will too.

Ever since I lived in Florida and we went through several of these (OK, and maybe a bit before) I’ve been a bit of a junky for these things. Well, not like @brendanloy or anything, but enough so I’m closely watching his feed, and refreshing the NHC site at the times the updates are due, and will be turning on one cable network or another to watch once they have the hapless reporters trying to stand against the wind and all that.

And I’ll be glad I NO LONGER live somewhere in the path of hurricanes. Instead here in Seattle there are earthquakes and volcanos to worry about. Much better. Right? Right?