Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog 

448. GainesvilleGator 12:27 PM EDT on March 25, 2008
Not only have the early hurricane forcasts been a bust but the ones on June 1st as well. The last two hurricane seasons were supposed to be really, really bad and all we got is drizzle & fizzle.

Need to be careful about that as it may have been "drizzle & fizzle" for the CONUS but a lot of lives were lost in the Carribean and the Yucatan when Dean plowed accross.....The Season affects the entire Tropics and not just the U.S.........

Good point, Kris. I think sometimes people forget that "active" is defined by number of storms that actually form, not by number of landfalls. I'm thinking about the seasons where we've had 15 or 16 storms, many of them majors, but only one or two landfalls in the US. 2003 was a case in point, with 16 named storms but only two hurricanes striking the US, neither as a major. Even in the whole basin there were only 4 hurricane landfalls.

if that sleeping giant Dr M mentioned took advantage of it's opportunity, it would of easily be another category 5!

Anyone have any information on strength of la niña and cyclogenesis? I have only seen research on number of hurricanes that formed in string la niña years versus strong el niño years, but never strong la niña years versus moderate la niña years and that would be very interesting to me. I know you've been busy Adrian but whenever you get a chance that would be great. Or anyone else who could help with this.

Strong La Nina years tend to have less hurricanes than moderate La Nina years. It appears that this La Nina will be over by hurricane season anyway, and we will be in neutral conditions.

Antarctica - A chunk of ice nearly seven times the size of Manhattan Island has collapsed into the ocean. Article from CNN:

Link

Someone check da thermostat please..


Antarctic ice shelf 'hanging by a thread'
Movie Camera

* 18:08 25 March 2008
* NewScientist.com news service
* Catherine Brahi Link

New Mississippi delta would limit hurricane damage

* 13:20 18 February 2008
* NewScientist.com news service
* Phil McKenna
Story: Link

Diverting parts of the Mississippi would create up to 1000 square kilometres of new wetlands between New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico, forming a vital storm surge buffer against hurricanes, researchers say. The formation of new delta lands could also help stem ongoing coastal erosion without disrupting important shipping traffic.

"The scientific and engineering barriers are easily overcome," says Gary Parker, a geologist and engineer at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, who developed the plan with colleagues. "The big issue is political will".

Details of the scheme were unveiled on Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, US.

MODIS rapid response satellite pic of partial Wilkins ice shelf collapse.



This is the 4km resolution image showing where the collapse is.

Here's the 250m resolution image **Very large file 3.92MB

459. leftovers 3:35 PM CDT on March 25, 2008
Nuetral yr means what? Fearful this yr for some reason


I am always fearful since Katrina/Rita

The system, called America's Emergency Network, is being built to give the media, local residents and others direct access to information released by state and local emergency operations centers.


Inotherwords, Mayfield-Norcross basically found a way to just fix a broken govt run system. We pay taxes to the govt to provide this very thing, but they fail, so private entreprenuers come in and fix it, and capitalize off it.
Mayfield-Norcross: winners.
FEMA, NWS, NHC: losers (but collecting a govt paycheck and pension so don't care.)

I wonder if we will ever hear from StormKat again???