Clouds courtesy of Beryl, looking towards lighthouse from Canadian Hole

View from the Deck
Tropical storm? What tropical storm?

by Shelby Kinnaird

It's July 19 and yesterday we got an email from my stepdaughter, Katie, warning us about an impending hurricane. We hadn't seen TV in days, but thought it best to turn on the Weather Channel. We saw something off the coast of Hatteras that they had just declared to be tropical storm Beryl. A note was flashing across the bottom of the screen warning homeowners to take the necessary precautions to protect their property, but the local forecast merely predicted "scattered thunderstorms" and winds of 5-10 mph over the next several days. I can understand inconsistencies in weather forecasts among different sources, but two different predictions on the same TV screen? Talk about your mixed messages.

This morning when we got up, we noticed some amazing cloud formations over the sound. The sky was an incredible blue, the sun was shining brightly, the humidity had gone away and the temperature was a much cooler 81 degrees F – a perfect day on Hatteras. So we turned on the Weather Channel again. There's Jim Cantore near the Nags Head Pier with some nasty-looking clouds in the background. We immediately headed over to the ocean, hoping to get some good photos of the threatening skies.

We went to the Avon Pier and saw nothing. Zip. There were more clouds over the sound than the ocean (and the storm was off the coast, over the ocean). It sure made us wonder how the Weather Channel got a shot of that ominous-looking cloud while avoiding the bright blue sky.