'Tis the Season

In 1988, my mom rode out Major Hurricane Gilbert in Jamaica. It was a Cat 3 by then, but at its peak intensity it was the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record until Wilma in 2005. I remember following it on the news, wondering if my mom was okay. When she got back, she told me about the giant waves of rain, the terrifying howl of the wind, the hotel shaking as if a train was plowing through it, and the roof ripping off. At 7 years old, the only feelings I had were fascination -and envy. I knew right then and there that I had to experience a hurricane before I died. To paraphrase hurricane chaser Josh Morgerman, I think people who become obsessed with severe weather are just born this way.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was the first time I seriously contemplated intercepting a hurricane. Charles Edwards planted Myrtle Beach in my head when he commented on a Facebook post. As of Tuesday morning, Hurricane Matthew was forecast to be just offshore early Saturday near Myrtle Beach, SC as a Cat 2.  It was only an idea at first.. But as I looked up flights and hotels, the idea became more real and I started to get very nervous/excited. I checked the forecast every 3 hours, anxiously jumping between websites and contemplating my next move. I figured Myrtle Beach would be okay because I would arrive and just ride it out in a concrete high rise hotel. I didn't feel comfortable with the thought of renting a car and driving around alone in an attempt to relocate. Picking a hotel and just staying there seemed to be a safer option. I had crashed at a friend's place the night before and was still in pajamas at 2:30pm. My one track mind needed some food. I relocated myself to a nearby Tim Hortons and did some more thinking. By this point my nerves were making my stomach turn. Eventually I went to the library that I normally study and work at.

As time wore on and the forecast slowly changed, I started to consider West Palm Beach, FL instead. It was around 5pm by this point. The chasers I was chatting with throughout the day kept giving me tidbits of advice. George Kourounis's words of wisdom were, "Don't wreck my camera. Wrap it in plastic like it's a Tinder date." Myrtle Beach still felt like a better plan because it seemed less complicated and the hotel would have been cheap. At the end of the day, I just thought of it as a solo vacation. I was actually looking forward to having a hotel room to myself almost as much as the hurricane. My nerves were on high alert. It's like my instincts were fighting each other. One part of my brain, a very small part, was telling me that I was f*cking crazy but the rest was just trying to figure out the logistics of how I could pull this off. I suddenly had to make an urgent trip to the bathroom -that's how anxious I was. Shortly after 8pm, I was ready to pull the trigger on Myrtle Beach. I was going to arrive on Thursday and leave on Sunday. It looked like it was going to come very close to land. Then came the most useful piece of advice, from Scott McPartland, which was to call the hotel to make sure they were planning on staying open. I knew that South Carolina was going to be under a mandatory evacuation. He said that sometimes a hotel will kick you out and you have to scramble to find a new one before the storm arrives. Well f*ck. I knew I had to make this phone call, but a part of me didn't want to because I didn't want the answer. I knew it was not going to bode well for this trip.

Sure enough, I call the Polynesian and the front desk clerk, in her adorable southern accent, tells me that they are closing the next day at 1pm due to mandatory evacuation. As soon as I hear this, my heart sinks, but my stomach settles. I'm disappointed and bitter... but as it turned out, the later model runs and forecasts the next morning showed it veering east, out into the sea. At the present moment, the center of the storm will be nowhere near Myrtle Beach. I dodged a bullet. 

I feel like hurricane chasing is this exclusive club that is very hard to get into... but I know that eventually I will have my day in the rain. It just won't be this day. 

As was the case with ex-boyfriends of the same name, it appears that Matthew isn't the one.

Steam Devils on Lake Ontario

Last night I went to a friend's birthday party in Downtown Toronto and decided to crash there because I wanted to stay close to the lake to catch the steam devils on Lake Ontario as the sun rose. Southern Ontario has been going through quite the cold snap in the last few days so the conditions were going to be perfect. Of course, being the only sober one at the party meant that I couldn't actually fall asleep at a reasonable time. I laid in the dark in my friend's bedroom, trying to sleep through the yelling and death metal reverberating throughout the tiny apartment. I eventually dozed off at around 4:45am..

I woke up at 6am and went down to HTO Park West. The conditions were exactly like I'd hoped. No wind, clear sky, and a balmy -21 celsius. As I drove south on Yonge St, the lake came into view and I could see the steam gently rolling over the water. "Oh my god, there it is!". I literally said that out loud to myself. Remember, I've only had an hour of sleep. Downtown is so peaceful very early in the morning. Traffic was non-existent.

 This is what the lake looked like before the sun peeked over the clouds.

Once the sun came out, all these steam devils of various sizes began to spin up. It was a bit tricky shooting directly into the sun.

After being outside for 30 minutes, I started losing feeling in my fingers, despite wearing two sets of gloves, and my cameras were starting to become less responsive. I spilled some coffee on my bag and it froze instantly. If I breathed on the viewfinder on my camera, it fogged up and turned into frost. The rim of my coffee cup had frost. I literally ran back to the car because it felt like the cold was going to overtake me. I could feel it creeping up my legs as I walked as they gradually became more numb. It reminded me of when I did the Polar Bear Swim last year. Once back in the car, I cranked the heat and it felt like my fingers were on fire. For a moment I was concerned that I actually got frostbite. Despite living here for the first 12 years of my life.. after 22 years of being in Vancouver, my tolerance for cold had weakened significantly.

This was the the perfect Valentine's Day gift to myself.

Here are the video highlights.

EDIT: I'm proud to say that this footage ended up being shown throughout the day on The Weather Network on February 15th. :)