Editorial: Stop criticizing the meteorologists. Hurricane Henri could have devastated Connecticut.As Hurricane Henri churned off the Atlantic Coast on Aug. 21, Connecticut braced for a worst-case scenario. A direct hit somewhere around New Haven and a march up the I-91 corridor through the most densely populated part of the state would have brought devastating winds and rain to our doorsteps. Eversource was looking at the prospect of hundreds of thousands of homes without power. A shutdown of that magnitude would have paralyzed the state.
But then we got lucky. The storm veered a bit to the east and weakened into a tropical storm as it crossed cooler waters. Henri’s punch proved less powerful than predicted. There were scattered outages, localized flooding and a handful of evacuations. For most in the state, it was little more than a rough summer storm.
Now, predictably and sadly, the negativism that is increasingly endemic to our culture has kicked into gear. The meteorologists got it wrong. The storm was overhyped. The weather people just want to frighten us. Some of the attacks have reportedly turned personal.
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And here’s the thing: They didn’t get it wrong. The circumstances changed.
How far off were they?
About 60 miles! That is all, it was predicted to make landfall between New Haven and Old Saybrook and instead it made landfall in Point Judith RI just 60 miles away. It also shows another thing, at Tropical Storm impacts only a small area but can do major damage. We got 30 to 40 mile an hour winds while in the center of the storm they were just below hurricane force winds around 69 mph.
For one thing people d not understand the cone of uncertainly. Many think that the line in the center of the cone of uncertainly is the path of the storm and the shading on either side of line is where the hurricane will impact… WRONG. The center line is the mostly likely path and the odds of being hit tappers off the father away from the mostly path.
Tropical Storms and Hurricanes are small meandering storms that are highly subject other weather fronts and low/high pressure zones. They are not like fronts moving across a continent and they over water where it makes harder to track, they have to have planes fly through them to get the weather data.
About 60 miles! That is all, it was predicted to make landfall between New Haven and Old Saybrook and instead it made landfall in Point Judith RI just 60 miles away. It also shows another thing, at Tropical Storm impacts only a small area but can do major damage. We got 30 to 40 mile an hour winds while in the center of the storm they were just below hurricane force winds around 69 mph.
What’s remarkable about the backlash is that we’ve been here before. Just a year ago, in fact, with Tropical Storm Isaias. And Sandy before that. And Irene. And the October snowstorm. And a blizzard or two. We have lived through nature’s fury, and we know how dangerous things can get.
For one thing people d not understand the cone of uncertainly. Many think that the line in the center of the cone of uncertainly is the path of the storm and the shading on either side of line is where the hurricane will impact… WRONG. The center line is the mostly likely path and the odds of being hit tappers off the father away from the mostly path.
Tropical Storms and Hurricanes are small meandering storms that are highly subject other weather fronts and low/high pressure zones. They are not like fronts moving across a continent and they over water where it makes harder to track, they have to have planes fly through them to get the weather data.
So ease up on our local friends at the weather desks who worked through the weekend to keep us all up to speed, tempting as it may be to join the chorus of negative critics trying to outsnark each other on Facebook and Twitter. We dodged a disaster and stayed safe in the process.
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