a blog by christopher donahue

Huge Waves Hit Folly Beach From Hurricane Irene

mrpeatie — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:34:49 +0000

Hurricane Irene’s wind and rain may have brushed past Charleston, but the surge and wave action did not. Yesterday at Folly Beach saw some of the largest swells many have ever seen there. These pictures were taken by James Island resident and frequent Folly surfer Michael Overcash. I don’t know how to officially measure wave height but they look to be approaching 20 feet.

Bowman Road and Highway 17 Construction

mrpeatie — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:11:56 +0000

The construction at the intersection of Bowman Road and Highway 17 (Johnie Dodds Boulevard) entered a new phase this week as the main stretch of Highway 17 through the intersection will be closed for the next 10 months as an overpass can be built. Temporary lanes have been set up to allow traffic to continue to flow, but more delays then usual should be expected until the project is complete in the spring of 2012.

Below is a map of the how traffic will flow over the next 10 months with the green lines showing the how the temporary lanes will bypass the old lanes so the new overpass can be constructed. There is also a model rendering of what the overpass and intersection will look like when completed. The picture is looking north with Arby’s in the lower left and McDonalds in the upper right. Pictures were obtained from the Charleston Country Road Wise website which has more info, pictures, and updates on this and many other road projects throughout the county.

Thirsty Hummingbirds

mrpeatie — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:37:38 +0000

If you didn’t know, hummingbirds are pretty bad ass. They are among the smallest birds on Earth measuring in the 3-5 inch range. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 12-90 times PER SECOND generating a cool humming sound that gives them their name.

Some other cool tidbits are that they can fly backwards and their forward speeds can reach up to 35 mph. These incredible feats of aerodynamics come at a price though. Hummingbirds expend lots of energy so they must consume more than their own weight in nectar each day which requires them to visit hundreds of flowers daily. Essentially, they are always just hours away from starving to death.

I don’t see many hummingbirds here in Charleston so never really appreciated them much. I was visiting Snug T upstate this past weekend and they live in a rural area and have several bird feeders one of which is specifically designed for hummingbirds. We decided to try to hold the feeders and see if the birds would still come get a drink…

2011 Hurricane Season Starts Today

mrpeatie — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:00:07 +0000

The 2011 Hurricane Season officially starts today and runs through November 30. Alarmingly, there is already a tropical low off the Carolina coast. It’s unlikely to develop into much, but it could be a sign of things to come. This season is predicted to be an active one but then again so was last year and it turned out to be a relatively normal season. We were also aided last year by favorable winds that pushed many of the storms away from the U.S. coastline. Those winds may not have the same effect this year.

Below is a list of the hurricane names for this season along with a satellite image taken yesterday of that pesky little low off our coast. Image is courtesy of NASA and was posted originally on wunderground.com.

2011 Hurricane Names

Arlene	Emily	Irene	Maria	Rina	Whitney
Bret	Franklin	Jose	Nate	Sean
Cindy	Gert	Katia	Ophelia	Tammy
Don	Harvey	Lee	Philippe	Vince

Record Ticket Sales for 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah

mrpeatie — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 18:13:46 +0000

According to a recent newsletter sent out by the PGA, 94% of all the tickets to the 2012 PGA Championship have been sold making this the most successful ticket pre-sale in PGA Championship history. The remaining tickets will be made available to the public on August 15. You can visit PGA.com for information on how pricing and availability of these remaining tickets will work. The 2012 tournament will be held from August 6-12 at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island, SC.

Part of the reason tickets have sold so quickly is because there aren’t a lot of them available. Due to the geography and topography of the course, and to make sure every patron gets a decent viewing experience, the total number of spectators will be limited to approximately 27,000 per day. By comparison, the 2011 PGA Championship at Hazeltine Golf Club in Minnesota had more than 44,000 spectators on its busiest day.

There will be some small changes made to the course to accommodate the fans that will be in attendance. One of the cooler changes is the adding of a natural amphitheatre to the par-3 17 hole that will hold up to 5,000 spectators. The 17th is a dramatic par 3 over water that boarders along the Atlantic Ocean and should make for an exciting spot to watch the action. Below is an image of the 17th hole from Bing Map’s Bird’s Eye View before any changes have been made.

Buried Mystery Treasure

mrpeatie — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:09:22 +0000

A friend with a metal detector decided to scour the small, wooded area behind my residents over the weekend. I was quite surprised when he dug up this mystery artifact only a few feet from my back gate. It’s about 4-5 inches tall. We haven’t been able to figure out what it is. Some of the best suggestions include an oil lamp, some sort of smoking device, or maybe that thing that holds up curtain rods? Do you have any ideas? A larger image of the mystery treasure can be found here.

Progress at One World Trade Center

mrpeatie — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 18:29:11 +0000

As we approach the 10 year anniversary of September 11, 2001, many have forgotten about the buildings and memorials that were to be built at ground zero. Construction at One World Trade Center is finally making significant progress after years of debate and delays. Formerly known as the Freedom Tower, One World Trade Center will be the main building in the new World Trade Center complex.

Below is a picture from a nearby hotel taken earlier this morning on Twitter via Philippe Cousteau and an artist’s rendering of what the complex will look like upon completion.

Here’s another from early February:

Satellite Image of Australia Flood

mrpeatie — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:24:04 +0000

The flooding in Australia has become the costliest national disaster in the country’s history with damages now exceeding $30 billion. That price tag makes it comparable to some of the costliest hurricanes to ever hit the United States. The floods are a result of the wettest spring the region has experienced in 111 years of recording keeping. A coastal area near Queensland received over 4 feet of rain. The weather is mostly a result of La Nina. More information on this and several other floods in Brazil, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and the Philippines can be found at Dr. Jeff Master’s Wunder Blog.

Images below show the flooding in Rockhampton, Australia. The first image is from Google Maps and the second is from our friends at NASA.

Winter Wonderland

mrpeatie — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:57:05 +0000

If you weren’t sure, Winter officially arrived earlier this week as a powerful storm system moved its way across the South dumping snow and freezing rain over many areas that do not normally see such winter weather. Areas of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina all received anywhere from 3 to 11 inches of snow. Freezing rain was also an issue for those areas that didn’t get snow. It certainly wreaked havoc here in Charleston on Monday with the area bridges having to be closed for about 4 hours during the day because of icy conditions. The rare southern storm meant that 49 states had snow on the ground at one point this week. Florida was the only state that remained snow free. And yes, even Hawaii has snow at the tops of the island’s highest volcanic peaks.

The storm moved its way up the east coast and formed into a classic nor’easter dumping records amounts of snow in Connecticut with many areas getting over 2 feet in one day. Below is an image from NASA/GSFC showing the storm at 8:30am on January 12.

My brother lives in the Atlanta metro area. Schools have been closed for 4 days now. The city remains paralyzed as temperatures haven’t gotten above freezing to melt anything. I always hate when Northerners rip on Southerners for cancellations and closings when even the slightest winter weather hits. It’s not that we are wimps, it’s that we don’t have the equipment to clear the roads. We don’t have a fleet of plows and salt trucks waiting to head out when the first snow flake falls. This pretty much sums up the situation in Atlanta this week.

The Coolest Christmas Card I’ve Ever Received

mrpeatie — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 14:29:53 +0000