Tropical storm season in full swing on Cape Cod: A photographer’s view

It’s excessive season for tropical instances on Cape Cod, be it melancholy, storm or full-fledged hurricane. Seasoned weather-watchers on the peninsula know late August by September is time to be alert.  Our final direct hit was Hurricane Bob. He rolled in on a Monday, August 19, 1991.

There isn’t any scarcity of climate info in 2025. Long vary forecasts can have us on the sting of panic lengthy earlier than a storm even qualifies for a reputation. My favourite method to maintain updated, the National Hurricane Center’s “Cone of Uncertainty,” which may be discovered on quite a lot of climate telephone apps.

The “cone” graphic has a Fifties look to it.  “X” at all times marks the present spot of a storm. The cone widens out right into a blob marking a predicted strike likelihood as much as 5 days away, together with depth. Like any profitable graphic it offers info shortly and legibly.

The early observe forecast for the latest Hurricane Erin a Cape Cod risk, steaming up the Atlantic. Even 350 miles away from us, because it handed out to sea to the south, its energy was on full show. As I arrived at Nauset Beach, in Orleans, the jap skies have been nonetheless clouded over however making an attempt to clear. Beach workers have been busy nailing within the seashore mats as lifeguards toppled over their stands and hauled them up the sand to safer places. Then dug within the crimson warning flags to sign no swimming.

Biblical lighting arrived, sending circles of daylight by the breaking clouds onto the whirling seas. Seen from on excessive, Kathy Dwyer’s early morning footprints traced a protected line simply above the advancing waves on the incoming tide. The gentle present slowly yielded to blue skies as extra storm watchers arrived to soak up the indignant ocean.  

Just days later Fernand tracked a path up the Atlantic ever farther off the East Coast. There isn’t any telling what’s forward in our seasonal tango with the tropics. Best to regulate the “cone of uncertainty” and be prepared for something.

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