Ophelia, You’re Breaking My Heart

Ophelia, first a tropical storm, and now a hurricane, has been sitting just off shore from where we live. Sometimes wobbling a bit north, sometimes a bit east, sometimes a bit south… this radar image is as of about an hour before this post. (Follow the link to current radar.) We’ve been right on the edges of the outer bands of the system for days now. It was a little closer yesterday, but not as strong. We’ve been getting lots of nice rain. No really high winds though. But the silly thing is just sitting there, right off shore, practically within sight… teasing us with its presence.

The forecasts have it basically staying stationary right there off shore, slowly gaining strength, for the next few days. Then early next week it will do something. Exactly what, nobody really knows. The hurricane center‘s best guess as of the last advisory was that it would slowly move east, then loop back around clockwise and head back in our general direction… or maybe somewhere else entirely. There will be a new advisory in a few minutes, and of course another every 6 hours after that. We’ll be paying attention.

At the very least, we’re getting several more days of lots of rain as outer bands occationally cross over our heads. At most, sometime in the next week we get a hurricane banging at our door.

Guess we’ll be watching it.

But the strangest thing has been just watching the radar, and seeing it just sit there. Right off shore. Moving slightly every once in a while, but basically just sitting there. Eye and everything. Within sight. But not coming toward us. Not going away. Just sitting there watching us as it spins. Shaking my confidence daily. Well, not really, just had to get a plug in for the next line of the song. I’m not going to be on my knees begging her to come home though.

Anyway, for the moment, the weather is fine, but…