Because this blog is called The Kyle Report ...

 ...I feel it’s my duty to inform you that we have our very own storm. 

It’s not a hurricane — most likely will never even become one — and the National Weather Service predicts it will never — ever — pose any danger to land, but it is a tropical storm and its name is Kyle. And since this is The Kyle Report, I feel it’s my solemn duty to report that, as of 5 p.m. yesterday, it was centered about 185 miles southeast of Atlantic City, N.J., heading east-northeast, away from land, at 17 miles per hour.

But here’s why we should take some semblance of pride in our namesake storm. Tropical storms and hurricanes are named sequentially by letter at the beginning of each storm season. With K being the 11th letter in the alphabet, Tropical Storm Kyle is thus the 11th named storm this season. But what makes it special is that it is the earliest 11th named storm on record. In fact, on average, a K-named tropical storm or hurricane forms on Nov. 23. So Tropical Storm Kyle coming along in August is somewhat of a big deal or, if you’re a proponent of the effects of climate change, a somewhat scary big deal.

Here’s something else I found somewhat scary. Before our Tropical Storm Kyle came along, the earliest K-named storm in history formed on Aug. 24 2005. You may have heard of it. It was called Hurricane Katrina.

Anyway, according to the NWS “Kyle is a minimal tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, which are predicted to increase to 50 mph over the weekend. By early next week, as it races north over colder water, it is expected to transition to a nontropical weather system over the North Atlantic.” 

There you have it — a genuine Kyle Report.

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

Now folks in Kyle have two ways to determine the current weather conditions in the community. One is the old fashioned way: just stick your head out the door.

But Acting City Manager James Earp unveiled a new way during Wednesday’s city council meeting. Go to the city’s web site, click on the "Community" tab and then acess "Kyle Weather Data" from the drop down menu. It’s actually a pretty neat page. You can see the current temperature, the forecast high and low for the day, humidity, dew point, atmospheric pressure, rainfall amounts, wind direction and speed as well as a table illustrating the "5 minute wind interval."

Now you can’t get all that just by sticking your head out the door.