West Word for 5/5/2010
Stacy Ridenour
Executive Director, Jacksonville Symphony
Notes
The District Symphony Event will be Saturday May 22, 2010. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Polio Plus Campaign.
The District Awards Meeting will be Monday, May 10, 2010. We will not be having a meeting at the Holiday Inn that week.
A new club was announced: Rotary Club of Orange Park at Sunset will be meeting for cocktails.
We will have a Suns baseball game event on Friday, May 28, 2010. Tickets will be $19.95 each for adults, $14.95 for youth, and free for children under 3. They will have all you can eat hamburgers and hot dogs from 6 to 7 pm. Sign up sheets will be going out in the next couple of weeks.
Next week we will have a blood drive. Please sign up.
The changes to the Club’s by-laws was motioned and passed.
John Runion thanked all those involved with the Youth Awards. He announced that we had a successful Clay Shoot last week. More news will be coming in the next few weeks. The raffle ticket winner was Caroll Mann.
New members were introduced to the club. Guy Leary sponsored by Ken Baker and Frank Young sponsored by John Runion.
John McCorvey Sr. (John McCorvey’s father) was introduced as a new Paul Harris Fellow by Preston Keys.
Guest Speaker:
Introduction of Steve Letro with NOAA Weather
- He is a meteorologist with over 30 years of experience
- Graduate from Florida State University
Steve Letro:
- May is the month before hurricane season.
- May flies:
- Have a life span of 24 hours
- Half of their life is experiencing global warming
- The other half is experiencing global cooling.
- Global warming takes place over a long period of time.
- Nature does not flip a switch to turn on some effect such as global warming or increased hurricanes.
- The Atlantic Oscillation is a 20 to 40 year cycle of general warming and cooling cycles.
- We are in an active period for hurricanes since 1995
- Climate changes take place over a very long period of time, and one particular event does not prove or disprove it.
- In 2005 we had 25 named storms breaking the previous record of 21.
- Last year we had 9 named storms.
- Climate change is not something that just happened.
- The atmospheric conditions are in a constant state of change.
- Think for yourself, and do not take for granted what is said on television.
- Are we having global warming? Yes.
- Is the warming caused by humans? Can not be determined. No one has yet to convincingly quantify humans impact on the environment.
Hurricane preparedness:
- It looks like this year has the possibility to be one of the peaks.
- Waters in the Atlantic are warmer than 2005.
- 2005 was actually a quite season for NE Florida.
- We should prepare the same for each season no matter the predictions.
- Even a slow season can have a major storm hit in your area.
- Predicted numbers for this year: 15 named storms, 8 hurricanes, and 4 major storms.
- the predictions do not tell us the locations the storms will hit.
Questions:
How does the Gulf Stream affect Jacksonville’s lower frequency of major storms?
The Gulf Stream does not steer hurricanes. It just happens that the atmospheric conditions that create the Gulf Stream also affect hurricanes. It is the atmospheric conditions that steer hurricanes.The coast’s shape does help some, but it does not protect us.Why does Tampa have so many thunder storms?
It is actually Brandon that sees the most storms. The land and sea breezes collisions just happen the more near the west coast than the east coast.Visiting Rotarians:
Fel Lee — Oceanside Jacksonville
Marcus Drewa from South JaxRotary Guests:
Chris Konernschild — Guest of Jim Riggan
John McCorvey, Sr. — Guest of John McCorveyBirthdays
Marshall Butler — May 5Next Meeting - May 12, 2010
Regular meeting canceled. We will be attending the District Luncheon on Monday, May 10 at the Hyatt Regency Downtown.Quick Links:
You can now report make-ups online. FIXED!Submit “Family of Rotary” information online.
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