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Ireland Storms
Wed Nov 19, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is The Weather Notebook. Today we're joined by commentator Chuck
Kruger who describes a morning ride by the ocean on a typically stormy day in Ireland.
What with the wind howling, slates vibrating, rain, sleet and hail battering our windows, we
didn't catch much shut-eye. In the morning, struggling into our island jalopy, we wrestled our
respective doors lest they be ripped off by gusts. When I rolled down my window to clear
moisture from the windscreen, a blast shut my eyes. We were glad the tide was out; otherwise
we'd have been blanketed by heavy spray or breakers.
Curious, we made our way, directionless as a rudderless ship, about this southernmost of Irish
isles we call home. We drove down a dirt road to the sea's edge, gawked at the pandemonium.
Yellow figures caught our eye. Ragworm bait-farmers scurried about. We had to yell to
converse, partly because of the wind, partly the roar of the sea. One man we hollered to
hollered back stories of a rogue wave that hit the Aran Isle of Inish Mor in 1942. Another
signaled he was double-checking emergency back-up equipment. A woman wearing hip boots hustled
by, monkey-wrench in hand.
When we groggily awoke the next morning, the storm had abated. My wife decided to telephone a
food order to the mainland only to discover our line was dead. I flicked on the TV to catch a
weather report only to discover no picture: the outside aerial had snapped. But the bait farm
was in place. Our roof was on. All we had to do was repaint the west gable. Child's
play.
Chuck Kruger is a writer and storyteller from Cape Clear Island, Ireland. Our show is a
production of the Mount Washington Observatory. Funding for The Weather Notebook comes from
Subaru of America and the National Science Foundation.
Today's Links
Chuck and Nell Kruger\'s Homepage:
http://indigo.ie/~ckstory/
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