I Feel Ya Ophelia!!

Hurricane Ophelia is now moving slowly away from the Florida coast...for now. Days of sitting and spinning in the exact same location off the Melbourne, FL coast has taken its toll on the Hurricane. Despite a warm supply of Gulf Stream water that would feed the storm, Ophelia's fury has upwelled cooler water from the bottom of the ocean and this has caused the storm to weaken. As you may know, warm water over 80 degrees is what's required for a hurricane to strengthen. Rainfall totals in the area where Ophelia has been sitting stationary are now at 34.3". WOW. Pretty impressive rainfall for 1 storm.

The track and strength of Ophelia are problematic. She is on the move northeastward right now but will stall out, make a complete 180 degree about face, and head for the East Coast of the U.S. Interestingly, ALL of the models loop Ophelia around, strengthening it to a major hurricane and have it make landfall between Jacksonville, FL and Charleston, SC in about 5 days. We'll have to watch this one closely. (Photos courtesy of NHC and my friends at StormTrack).

And from the absurd file:
I'm hearing that yesterday's Price is Right had a grand prize in the Showcase Showdown that was a trip to New Orleans and a speed boat. Now, I know many of these shows are taped in advance, but you'd have thought CBS or the production company would catch this and pull the show out of rotation since it is such a blunder. As a result, many CBS stations switchboards have been bombarded with calls from irrate viewers. DOH.