the weather today

Rather crazy day in the city today. Some sort of tornado hit Staten Island (one of the 5 boroughs that make up New York city). The sun came up in the morning, didn’t stay for long - in a few minutes it went back to being dark. A while later I could hear thunder & heavy showers and could see floods forming. An hour later, the showers stopped, but it was hot & very humid – with increased flooding.

Morning rush hour was bad (read terrible). Subways, buses, ferries all delayed given the weather. It took me an hour to get into work, which I think is much better than most people, since it took most 2 to 3 hours.

I've always known Manhattan is an Island, however realization (of some sort) hit today. Why do people have to come to work on an "island"? If you think about it - it's a bit strange, especially for someone like I, who has always lived & worked in separate cities, SHJ & DXB, but never have had to travel into an island for work.

Most corporations have worldwide head quarters in Manhattan, and though there are those fortunate amongst us who can afford to live in the city, the large majority of folks who work in NYC, live in the boroughs of Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn & Bronx, and in the suburbs of New Jersey, Connecticut and Philadelphia (which is at least 2.5 to 3 hour bus ride). There are several tunnels, bridges and ferries commuting people into the city. I would say about 90% of people working in the city use one and/or multiple public transport systems to get into the city. I read somewhere the population in Manhattan goes upto 8 million on a weekday.

Hence today, given the weather it was quite unfortunate to witness, almost an entire city of people, dripping wet head to toe with rain & sweat given the humidity – yet patiently waiting, forming (long) disciplined queues for delayed transit systems and for water, coffee & breakfast.

I got into work around 10AM, and we had people walk in past 11AM. Thankfully the office has a shower – which had a wait time thru lunch and into the later afternoon. Some folks went out to the GAP & Banana Republic stores next door for new clothes - given that they were drenched.

I left work around 8PM and walked to the subway – the sky was clear, there were no signs of rain, the streets seemed dry for the most part, but humidity continued to stay on. As I reached my apartment building, I could see spots of flooding, a few trees down and some stores without power - praying the entire time my building had power - and it did. I got home switched on the air conditioning, took a nice warm/cold shower – made ice tea, threw a frozen dinner into the microwave - just in time for an episode of Law & Order SVU.

They say the weather should be slightly better tomorrow and back to thunderstorms & showers on Friday – however you never know, at times we have all four seasons on a single day in the city. Hopefully the weekend should be nice, am off to Florida on projects & meetings - strongly dislike bad weather when flying.

Am off to bed, exhausted, been a busy week. Good night folks.