Not so with hurricane Lee, as I've been monitoring it with NOAA since late Thursday night.
It's actually the first of four headed from Africa to this side of the Atlantic Ocean, making a festive-looking necklace across that expanse of water.
When I first started watching Lee, it was already a mega-hurricane with 160 mph winds and it was steaming right along at 14 mph.
That's pretty scary stuff, but it was far away from any land at all, much less to the east coast of the United States.
Nonetheless, I kept up with a twice daily vigil on it, at 1100 and 2300, to spot changes.
And know what I found?
Within 24 hours, those deadly fierce winds had slowed to 115 mph.
Its pace eastward was still about the same, meaning it was traveling about 280 miles a day, based on 1 degree latitude being roughly 70 miles in distance.
I thought that was pretty interesting, though, that the winds had slowed.
That typically happens only after the hurricane comes ashore.
Another 24 hours later brings us to Saturday night - that would be now.
Now, not only have the winds slowed down even more - with the maximum sustained speeds being 105 mph - but its rate of travel has slowed, too.
It only traversed 3 degrees of latitude, or 210 miles, because it was going east at 9 mph.
What on Earth was happening to that hurricane out there?
Then I remembered that the Sargasso Sea is out in that area of the Atlantic Ocean.
It's a giant gyre out in the Atlantic that serves as a refuge for young marine life, thanks to the huge floating masses of seaweed in its calm central waters.
The fuchsia arrows denote the currents circling the gyre, keeping its contents contained.
Hurricane Lee traveled northward, missing the current that would have taken it into the islands of the Caribbean Sea, and, I believe, has become caught within the gyre, with the hurricane's strong winds getting sapped by the plant growth it's traversing.
I do hope I'm correct about that.
I think Christa would have been excited at the possibility of Lee becoming loaded up there with baby sharks, giving us a Sharkricane, as opposed to a Sharknado.
That thought brings a smile to me.
I do miss that amiga.
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As of 2300 tonight, Lee has traveled another 210 miles, now at 8 mph.
The maximum sustained winds has crept back into mega-hurricane status, cl0cking in at 120 mph.
It's still far from any land masses, though it is forecast to reach Bermuda, there on the western edge of the Sargasso Sea, by Friday.
Where it goes from there is anyone's guess, which is surely what the meteorologists on TV have been doing for days.
Yes, I'll be monitoring it, and Margot as well.
"Twisting By The Pool", a song by Dire Straits, came to mind just now as I looked at the latest update from NOAA on Lee.
Funny, right?
I think so.
There's a hurricane, in dire straits mid-Atlantic, forced to be twisting in near about the same location because its feet are stumbling around in knotted grass.
I wonder what the 11 PM forecast will show?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twisting_by_the_Pool
It's just after 11 PM on September 12, and not much has changed.
Maximum winds are at 115mph, travel speed is 7mph, and the direction is still being tweaked by the seagrass.
However, there is one difference now.
Bernuda is going to catch a lot of wind and surf all day and all night on Thursday, possibly well into Friday.
Why do I say that?
Hurricane Lee is going to get turned eastward, away from the North American coast, by that current running east along the top of the Sargasso Sea.
Right now, the forecast is strong storm for Maine and NE Canada...
but I think they're going to just get brushed, due to that sea current.
We'll see.
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