Maybe it had something to do with the devastating tropical wind-and-rainstorm that battered Rio de Janeiro last week, but the American Embassy / U.S. State Department decided to issue a weather alert today for Wednesday, 13 February 2019. It seems that the State Department is getting more aggressive with its alerts, a good thing in my opinion, as one of the functions of a diplomatic mission is to safeguard the interests of its citizens living in or visiting a foreign country.