[Rain-maker]

13L.ISABEL, TRACK_VIS,  17 SEP 2003 2155Z
	Forecast by: National Hurricane Center Graphic by: Naval Atlantic Meteorology and Oceanography Center		Latest Image

[Howlin]

How does this thing "work?"

http://hadar.cira.colostate.edu/ramsdis/online/RSOgeir3.html

How do I get it to run?

[honeygrl]

amazing image. looks like the eye is closing up.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Great photo -- they do have an undeniable beauty when viewed from above, if we can forget what havoc they can bring.

But I like the map even better (and I'd suggest that folks click on it for an enlarged version). As they say on Wall Street, "past results are no guarantee of future performance," but I hope they are in this case. The sharp kink to the west on its anticipated future track seems rather arbitrary. If we can coax the ol' girl past Hatteras while she remains out at sea, she may lose a good deal of the punch she has remaining (she's already down from 160 to 105 mph in terms of sustained winds), as the Gulf Stream peels off sharply to the east at that point, and Isabel would enter cooler water. So even if she goes on to hit the Chesapeake Bay, or Cape May, or Block Island, she may do so as a minimal hurricane or a mere tropical storm.

Forecasters aren't saying any such thing, of course, but recent loops I've looked at on the NHC site keep that possibility alive in my mind, at least.