It was early on during our time in Bermuda that the first talk of hurricane’s started. Thankfully they don’t pass very often but a few people we got to know early on had lived through ‘Igor‘ in 2010 and many Bermudian’s will talk to you about ‘Fabian‘ which hit in 2003 and was the worst hurricane to hit Bermuda since 1963.
Having arrived towards the end of the ‘hurricane season’ last year (different information from different places, but roughly June-November), the worst we saw was tropical storm conditions and despite staying in a studio guest house at the time we managed to while away the time uneventfully.
Earlier this week, we heard about a ‘tropical depression’ that was due to build into a ‘tropical storm’ and then ‘hurricane’. And so it was we started to get up to speed on the terminology and joined the discussions. Our little storm was to be called ‘Leslie‘. She sat south east of us for some time and built in strength to a Category 1 hurricane with models predicting she’d reach Cat 2 and even Cat 3 as she approached. Better still she was on path for a direct hit and as she was only moving between 1 and 5 mph she’d be staying a while to cause some damage. The Bermuda Emergency Measures Organization said; “Leslie could be a historic storm for Bermuda as it is very large and forecast to intensify rapidly as it approaches, the island could experience hurricane force winds for a sustained period of time, possibly up to two days.” It looked like we might get to experience our first hurricane!
Thankfully, our early conversations with friends had calmed our nerves that Bermudian houses are built to withstand such winds and while necessary caution was needed, the main advice was ‘prepare to sit it out’ and ensure we have ‘some snacks and drinks’…boredom is the thing to worry about! Hence when we were asked for quotes for an article Liz was writing she didn’t quite get the drama she was hoping for! Still, the article seems to have been well received – as I write this I can find nearly 3000 references to it! 🙂 Liz said she’ll get us some fame counselling if needed.
Others didn’t feel the same though and panic buying was in action!
As the working week drew to a close, Leslie’s path started moving east and it looked almost certain we wouldn’t be getting a direct hit. It was now just a matter of time to see how much the outer reaches of the weather system would reach us. As you can see from a recent model, we’ve just been glanced!
That said, we’re still getting some charming weather! With the worst weather due to hit Sat night/Sun morning we opted for a group lunch out on Saturday, figuring the weather wouldn’t be inviting us to do much more! (Don’t worry Mum’s – we kept it local for everyone so no-one had to travel far…sensible in our old age!) In the evening it was getting muggy and the wind was picking up but there was still not much to show. We actually had a BBQ!
Over night the rain came in and today has not been a day for going out, but nothing too bad either.
If I’m honest, we have heavier rain on a regular basis and it was windier back in October 2011 when we were staying in the guest house!
The hurricane season’s not over yet though! 🙂
