Ernesto is latino, John is anglo, and some thought Chantal was black. Remember El Nino? I know the names of the storms correspond to each letter of the alphabet but why do all these storms have western names?
Why is there no hurricane Osama, no tropical storm Emeka, no hurricane Cho, no tropical depression Khan, no hurricane Muhammad (the most common name in the world), no hurricane Shanene, etc?
Slate.com has an interesting article on the naming of hurricanes.
Our perception affects how hot or cold we feel:
I remember a few weeks ago, the weather was in the 100’s and I was praying for it to be more moderate and in the 70’s. Now, with our friend Ernesto passing by the east coast the tempature has dropped to 60’s and 70’s and I feel way too cold.
Over these summer months, it had become habit for me to open my windows when I left for work in the morning. But I finally caved in and closed my windows. I’m not sure whether or not to turn on the heat inside the house. I know summer is ending but it still feels wrong somehow to turn on the heat when just a few days ago it would have been stifling without the air condintioner.
Which reminds of my family’s first trip to Disney World when I was a kid. It was late December and we were staying at a family friend’s house. Most of the days were sunny and warm which was unimaginably refreshing after the winters we experienced in upstate NY.
But there was one day while we there that the tempature dropped to around 70 degrees and while we were just fine basking in the relative heat wave, our hosts were freezing and layering up in sweaters. My parents say they had the same weather shock when they first moved from Nigeria to the States.
And I remember during those long NY winters that if the temperature climbed into the 40’s we would be so happy that we could go outside without being so bundled up.
Ify Okoye 