Tuesday, October 7, 2008

I'm Tired

Wanna know why? The wind. Which, in the same way that rain is not a big enough word to describe the way it rains here, wind is so inadequate and paints so vague a picture as to be utterly useless to describe what we've got going on here. Perhaps gale would be more descriptive? What about hurricane? The forecast is warning of severe gales up to 150kmh-that's 93mph (!) for you metric-impaired Yanks. At what point do we stop messing around and call this what it feels like?

By the way, as I sat here typing that Steve walked in and said to me, "it's raining up right now, I just wanted to mention that."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the way gale-force winds are just considered "breezy" here...honestly, how fast does it have to be blowing out there for anyone around here to admit it feels like a hurricane?

Hope you get some rest tonight :)

Lisa

Anonymous said...

Everyone knows those gales are only in "exposed places" :-).
They can be distinguished from cyclones - which NZ does get - which are hurricanes by another name (though they are sometimes difficult to tell apart from the general windy/rainy weather here in Wellington). Cyclones generally hit Auckland/Northland/BOP, they have to be pretty darn big to really be noticeable in Wellington. One of the biggest cyclones ever was Cyclone Bola in 1988.
The North Island from about Taranaki north gets the odd tornado too...and the whole country gets earthquakes of course...
But we don't have poisonous animals or insects, so I guess that makes everything alright really ;-)

Jacob said...

One of my coworkers was relating a story about 185kmh winds during a winter storm a few years ago - I can't imagine! Just when I think I've seen the windiest Wellington has to offer, they're pulling someone's trampoline off a rooftop.