2017.09.11 Monday: The eye of Hurricane Irma made landfall in the Florida Keys on Sunday morning as a Category 4 storm, "bringing powerful winds of up to 130 mph, rain and flooding. A storm surge of 10 feet was recorded in the Florida Keys," according to the National Weather Service.
According to weather.com: This happened "just 16 days after Hurricane Harvey roared into Rockport, Texas, with maximum sustained winds also at 130 mph." This was "the first time in 166 years of weather records that two Atlantic Category 4 hurricanes have made landfall in the United States during the same year."
By the time that "Hurricane Irma" reached my area today, it had been downgraded to a post-tropical depression. The day was quite windy, cloudy, and cold --with a steady rain. All of the area schools were closed today ...At the time that the decision had to be made, Irma was still a much stronger storm.
Our normal high temperature for this time of year is 85 degrees F.; today we did not even reach 60 degrees F. ...It was a rather early taste of the coming winter!
In news today also: Today was the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. There were many memorial tributes to the fallen held; I choose to focus on the fact that we are blessed that nothing else of that magnitude has happened in the intervening years.
