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OBSERVATIONS
August 6, 2020 |
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 Wingate Lassiter |
Isaias (ees-ah-EE-ahs), the two-i'd
storm with a name easily forgotten
While folks along North Carolina's southern coast won't forget it, Hurricane Isaias won't be remembered much around here since we dodged the proverbial bullet with its weakened quick passage through our region.
The storm's name is another reason it won't stick in our memory.
Mainly because we won't remember how to pronounce it.
NOAA, our national weather
service, comes up with the names for these storms and
says the correct pronunciation of Isaias is
"ees-ah-EE-ahs." How many television weather people
and newscasters got that right, do you think?Seems like I heard "EYE-say-EE-ah-sis" (five syllables, no less) from some of them.
Isaias is the Spanish-Latin derivative of the Hebrew name Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet, according to NOAA.
Wonder why they didn't use "Isaiah" to start with? But then it might have been a storm worth remembering. Thank goodness it wasn't.
P.S. The next named storm will be "Josephine," pronounced "JOH-seh-feen," says NOAA (as if we couldn't figure that one out for ourselves).
(NOAA is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Too bad they didn't pick NOAH instead --- another Biblical name that could have stood for National Observatory of American Hurricanes. With an ark as its logo, of course.)
Isaias flooding nothing like Matthew, Fran & Floyd
The high mark of 16.48 feet recorded late Wednesday morning classified officially as "minor flooding" --- just above flood stage at 15 feet on the Neuse at Smithfield --- yet enough to inundate the boat ramp and lift the floating dock away from dry land.
The Isaias flooding didn't come close to the disastrously high levels wrought by hurricanes Matthew (29.09 feet in October 2016), Fran (27.4 feet in September 1996), or Floyd (26.72 feet in September 1999).
The flooding from Isaias doesn't even rank as the highest level we've seen in 2020. That came with an unnamed rainfall event back in February when the Neuse crested at 21.26 feet here.
If you want more current and historical data about Smithfield's river flooding,
visit this page on the National Weather Service website>
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