Free Republic

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It’s been quiet — too quiet — this Atlantic hurricane season, meteorologists and residents of storm-prone areas whisper almost as if not to tempt fate. A record-tying inactive August is drawing to a close and no storms have formed, even though it is peak hurricane season and all experts’ pre-season forecasts warned of an above normal season. Nearly all the factors that meteorologists look for in a busy season are there. Yet zero storms formed. Surprised experts point to unusual persistent dry air and a few other factors. But each time they and computer simulations think...

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - JUST two weeks into the 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season and already three disturbances are being monitored in various sections of the Western Hemisphere. The first one is expected to fully develop off the coast of the United States and Canada in the coming days. According to the National Hurricane Center, satellite and surface observations indicated that a well-defined low pressure system, located about 90 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, is acquiring more tropical characteristics. Meteorologists said that environmental conditions appear conducive for further development, and that a tropical depression or tropical storm is likely...

Experts at Colorado State University predict storm activity for the remainder of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season will be "below average." Their latest report predicts the Atlantic could produce nine named storms and three hurricanes from now to the end of hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30. Of those three hurricanes, experts predict one will be a major hurricane, which means a Category 3, 4 or 5 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. A Category 3 storm has wind speeds between 111 and 129 miles per hour, while the strongest Category 5 storm hits 157 mph or higher. The report, produced...

Experts are now forecasting a "below-average" Atlantic hurricane season based on unusually cold temperatures in portions of the Atlantic Ocean, according to updated projections released Monday (June 2) by Colorado State University. The new predictions call for a total of 11 named storms to develop this season, a drop from the original prediction of 14. The 11 storms include Subtropical Storm Alberto, the one named storm that has already occurred this season. Of those 11 storms, four are expected to become hurricanes, including one major hurricane. The original forecast, released in April, included seven hurricanes, three of them major hurricanes....

Tropical Storm Nate is emerging from Honduras into the Western Caribbean. Forecast models are in agreement that Nate will continue into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil companies have begun evacuations of offshore platforms. Nate is forecast to reach the northern Gulf Coast this weekend as a hurricane, and the threat of direct impacts from wind, storm surge, and heavy rainfall is increasing from Louisiana through the western Florida Panhandle. Hurricane and tropical storm watches, as well as a storm surge watch, have been issued for a portion of the northern Gulf Coast, and residents in these areas should monitor the...

Original title of video: Louisiana making evacuations ahead of NATE - Already dropping 20+ inches of rain! Video is 4:07 minutes in length.

<p>With hurricane hunters tracking one monster storm in the Atlantic Ocean, another tropical storm has formed, and it threatens to form into a hurricane as well.</p> <p>Tropical Storm Jose formed in the open Atlantic, far from land, on Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.</p>

Batten down the hatches. Thanks in part to warmer waters in the southern Atlantic Ocean, experts are predicting a worse-than-usual hurricane season.

Bill Nye, who once called himself “the science guy,” took advantage of the torrential rains that hit Houston and the surrounding area to get up on the global warming – aka climate change – hobby horse. Tuesday, he tweeted, “Billion$$ in damage in Texas & Oklahoma. Still no weather-caster may utter the phrase Climate Change.” Of course meteorologists, unlike Nye, have spent their careers studying weather and its underlining causes. For a more scientifically accurate explanation of what caused the storms, read the Houston Chronicle’s excellent and fact based analysis.

All about hurricanes.

Most Houstonians don't spend much time thinking about hurricanes in mid-December as the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year approach. Although next Tuesday marks the first day of winter, solstice also represents a seasonal nadir, when the sun reaches its lowest point in the southern sky and begins its northerly climb toward future summer. So far this season, the nights have been bracing, but with no hard freeze in the metro area. If urban gardeners have a complaint, it's about the paucity of rain that has left us six inches below normal and flirting with drought. So...

ROBERT, La. — After failing again to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP scrambled Sunday to make some progress in ending the spill that the president's top energy adviser said was the biggest environmental disaster the U.S. has ever faced. Six weeks after the spill, oil giant BP PLC said that its latest plan to cap the well wouldn't capture all the crude fouling the Gulf. And the relief wells currently being drilled — which are supposed to be a better long-term solution — won't be done for at least two months. "Well, the relief...

In stark contrast to the global warming alarmists, hurricane forecasters have now become almost comically vague in their forecasts. The problem for the hurricane forecasters is that their predictions can be checked for accuracy just months after the initial forecast.  While global warming alarmists feel free to predict disaster years into the future, hurricane forecasters are now forced to be very very cautious, especially in light of their highly inaccurate 2006 hurricane season predictions. On the heels of the very active 2005 hurricane season which many blamed on global warming, forecasters didn't even wait for 2006 to begin before issuing a forecast in early December...

DELAND, Fla. -- An 8-year-old DeLand girl reported missing was found by police riding her bike as fast as she could to leave the state of Florida, fearing a massive Hurricane Dean was on its way. The parents of Heather Snoke reported the girl missing Wednesday night after last seeing her riding on her bike, according to a newspaper report. Volusia County sheriff's deputies searching by helicopter eventually spotted Heather about a mile from home on East Plymouth Avenue, still on her bike. She told officers that the recent news about hurricanes had scared her, and she wanted to ride...

MIAMI (Reuters) - The Atlantic hurricane season will be exceptionally active this year, according to a British forecasting group, raising the possibility that killer storms like Hurricane Katrina could again threaten the United States. London-based forecaster Tropical Storm Risk on Tuesday said the six-month season, which begins on June 1, was expected to bring 17 tropical storms, of which nine will strengthen into hurricanes with winds of at least 74 miles per hour. Four of those are expected to become more destructive "intense" hurricanes, TSR said. The long-term average for the Atlantic is for 10 storms to form during the...

PONCE (AP) – National Weather Service [PR/USVI Forecast Office] Director Israel Matos did not rule out Tuesday that some of the tropical waves that have already formed in the Atlantic Ocean will turn into the first tropical storm, which would carry the name of Alberto. "In 1999, we had several storms when the season began that developed in the Caribbean; this year, it is possible to have now in June the first tropical storm," he said. The official said that last year, a tropical storm formed in June in the Gulf of Mexico. Matos specified that since 1995, the early...

MIAMI, June 1 (UPI) -- There were no tropical systems moving off Africa toward the Americas Thursday, the first day of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, has been campaigning for weeks for the more than 34 million people who live in storm-prone coastal areas to begin preparations, USA Today reported. He's concerned with a survey of 1,100 people by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research that found more than half don't feel vulnerable to hurricanes, and 3-in-5 have no family disaster plan. Referring to last year's devastating strike by Hurricane Katrina...

A tip for the hurricane season: Try to have some kind of a clue Dave Barry The 2006 hurricane season is here, and if you're a resident of Florida, you know what that means: It means you have the IQ of bean dip. If you had any working brain cells, by now you'd have moved to some less risky place, such as Iraq. This is especially true after last hurricane season, which was so bad that we went all the way through the alphabet of official names and had to refer to the last batch of hurricanes by making primitive...

When hurricane season begins, Texas will be much-better prepared By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, May 26, 2006 When the 2006 hurricane season begins June 1, Texas believes that it will be much-better prepared for disaster than it was when the state was battered last year. Texas, which sustained $2 billion in damage from Rita last year, can't stop Mother Nature, but it can minimize her effects on residents. Texas Gov. Rick Perry recognized that need five years ago. "He laid out a plan to build capabilities at the local level for catastrophic events. . First responders were his number one...

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole! ...Apple, thorn, and nut and sloe First thread: New Zealander builds Hobbit holeSecond thread: The New Hobbit HoleThird thread: The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads! (Congratulations, we filled it up!) Fourth Thread: The Hobbit Hole IV - The Road Goes Ever On...Fifth Thread: The Hobbit Hole V - Where Many Paths and Errands Meet...Sixth Thread: The Hobbit Hole VI - And Whither Then? I Cannot Say...Seventh Thread: The Hobbit Hole VII - But not yet weary are our feet... Eighth Thread: The Hobbit Hole VIII - Still round the corner we may...