Hurricane Isaac, here it comes

Hurricane Isaac is rolling slowly over the Gulf of Mexico. It's forecasted to hit us early Wednesday morning. Hurricanes spawn smaller thunderstorms as they go, and we'll get a wave of these little stormlets (the opening act, if you will) tomorrow afternoon. If Isaac ramps up to a Category 3, we're planning to evacuate; otherwise, we're staying put. We have candles and canned food and water. This is Eran and my first actual hurricane. There was a nearly-hurricane tropical storm last year, but this is the real deal.

We can already feel it coming. Hurricanes are preceded by several days of odd but pleasant weather. Today is warm and dry and windy--more like an August day in Los Angeles, when the Santa Ana winds are kicking up. The sky is hazy and white. Earlier, I drove up to the grocery store (Mardi Gras Zone, who say they'll be open "as long as possible", bless 'em), and saw people out nailing plywood over their windows. The bald cypresses in our backyard are whipping back and forth in the hot wind.

Back in the 1800s, this unnatural lack of humidity was the only way to know a hurricane was coming. It happens because the hurricane is literally drawing in all the moisture in the air, from way out there in the ocean.