Beryl Now a Tropical Storm

Tropical Storm Beryl is still well offshore, but officials in Georgia and Florida were already bracing for drenching rains and driving winds. Campers at Cumberland Island, which is reachable only by boat, were told to leave by 4:45 p.m. The island has a number of undeveloped beaches and forests popular with campers.

Down the coast a bit in Jacksonville, Fla., Sunday's jazz festival and Memorial Day ceremony were canceled. Workers are also out clearing tree limbs and debris that could be tossed about by the storm's winds, which had reached 65 mph.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday that Beryl had gotten slightly stronger, with maximum sustained winds now at 65 mph. Beryl was centered about 110 miles east of Jacksonville, Florida, and about 120 miles southeast of Brunswick, Georgia.

Beryl is projected to make landfall late Sunday or early Monday.

Waste Treatment Plants Ready for the 'Super Bowl Flush'

Wastewater treatment plants all over the country always dread Super Bowl Halftime.  It's not because the NFL usually trots out washed up rockers and puts then on a bad sound system with people in costumes dancing badly in front of the portable stage.

It's because of the "Super Bowl Flush" as officials reported that there is a noticeable surge in sewage flow and a drop in water pressure during halftime the Super Bowl.

During last year's Super Bowl, the wastewater plant in Vallejo, Calif., received a noticeable bump in inflow during halftime.

Jennifer Kaiser, spokeswoman for the Vallejo Sanitation and Flood District, reported that there were up-ticks in the flows around half time and after the game ended last year.

In Miami, the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department requested that local football fans try to spread their trips to the restrooms throughout the game. This will lessen the impact on the sewer system. The Department even asked fans to consider single-ply toilet paper. Huh?

Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, reported that no other television event, including the World Series and the Olympics, causes a noticeable increase.

A wastewater expert reported that realistically, a water customer might only notice that the water flow is slightly slower than normal during the half-time show this year.

Some water treatment facilities may notice issues even after the game is over.  Joe Haworth, member of the California Association of Sanitation Agencies Public Education Committee, told The Reporter that the effects are not as immediate on the wastewater side, since sewage can sometimes take hours to reach wastewater plants.

My advice is don't wait until halftime, not because you might miss a retread like Madonna, but because you'll miss the Puppy Bowl or the Lingerie Bowl.

Winter Weather Hits Rockies Leading Up to Thanksgiving

Snow showers are moving over the Rocky Mountain Front will make for hazardous travel at times through Wednesday morning.

A Winter Weather Advisory is now in effect for the northern Rocky Mountain Front until 11 a.m. Wednesday.

The strong winds will produce areas of blowing snow and could reduce visibilities below 1/4 of a mile at times.

This advisory affects numerous passes in the Rockies.

6-12 inches of snow are expected over the mountainous areas of this region.

3-6" could fall at the lower elevations through Wednesday.

Hurricane Igor Intensifies to a Category 4 Storm

Hurricane Igor quickly gained strength today as it moved toward the Caribbean, surging to a Category 4 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, and may add more power during the next two days.

The storm, with maximum sustained winds of 135 miles per hour, is moving west at 14 mph, the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its advisory. The hurricane is about 1,120 miles east of the Northern Leeward Islands, the center said. Hours earlier, at 11 a.m. New York time, the center said the hurricane’s maximum sustained winds were 105 mph.

Igor’s formation gave the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season its ninth named storm, as many as all of last year, based on data from the hurricane center. The season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, and an average year has 11 storms with winds of at least 39 mph.

By 8 a.m. New York time on Sept. 17, Igor is expected to be north of Puerto Rico and well to the east of the Bahamas, the center said.