Sedgewick Ave. Cheers

Written by Dr. Mel

Sunday, 14 August 2005

For the past couple of weekends, my two-year old grandson saw me and gave me a Bronx cheer. I am not exactly sure why he did that, or how even even picked it up, but I did raise my daughter in the Bronx until she turned two. We lived down the street from Yankee Stadium, and we did go to a few Yankee games, but I think the inspiration for his display of displeasure had to be related to this summer's weather. He is among the many that are letting their feelings be known to me. Up until the past week, this summer was going at a feverish pace, on its way to becoming the hottest summer on record. We could still be close – too close for comfort. And the torrid rate of e-mails tells me that this summer is really nothing to cheer about, except maybe, Bronx cheer about. Still, the weather is like the stock market, just when more than half the world is convinced that a particular trend will never change – it becomes overheated and changes, and sometimes dramatically. A change in late August would save the day. Within the next week, or so, schools will be opening, and somehow those back-to-school styles just wouldn’t seem to work in the big heat, and then, there are the schools without air conditioning. But amazingly many schools in the South have already opened their doors, some were opened in July! I guess they like to get out early. May? But in addition to having the heat wave pattern persist along with levels of sometimes dangerous discomfort is the threat of hurricanes. Ever since June, the weather circulation patterns in the Atlantic looked like something out of August. The strong and warm high pressure system in the Atlantic was much farther north than usual. It brought the heat and helped set the stage for a record number of early hurricanes. The past week has marked the 50th anniversary of the most costly disaster in Connecticut history – the floods of Connie and Diane. In the scheme of disasters, when the storm costs are adjusted to today's dollars, Diane was the ninth most costly hurricane in U.S. history. There is no doubt that if the heat wave pattern of this year did not change, we would be slammed by a major hurricane over the next few weeks. But this week, just when “Irene” was curving to the north, the protecting west to east jet stream began to build southward from Canada. It took some of the heat off, and it forced the storm out to sea. That troublesome, scorching high pressure system is in sync with that jet stream, and it, too, has drifted southward. If this cooler pattern holds on, or strengthens, then we are on easy street, but if it breaks down, even temporarily, then we could be back in the soup, and I’m back on the receiving side of the old Sedgewick Avenue cheer – although, I wouldn’t mind a high-five every now and then.

 

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