[dennis1x]

SamAdams,

This is a pointless debate as you are incredibly wrong. Waters in the gulf are at their warmest of the year at the end of September. Texas is usually spared because most storms either go west into Mexico or make a full turn toward the north and hit a east-west border (northern gulf).

Ramble on but there is a strenghtening hurricane in the gulf, its not going to go away with the clock strikes midnight on the 25th.

[SamAdams76]

I've got "hurricane hype fatigue." Weather forecasters are always hyping every disturbance that ever forms within 1000 miles of the U.S. Only very rarely do these hurricanes ever do harm to the American mainland. I like to look past the hysteria and examine the facts. It is a rarity for a hurricane to have major impact this late in the season on U.S. shores. Yes, it does happen occasionally. Yes, we should keep an eye on this particular hurricane Isodore. But it is way too early to hit the panic button. Most likely, this hurricane will continue it's westward drift and never affect U.S. interests. If it does take that northward turn, it is days away and people along the Gulf coast will have plenty of time to prepare for it. It is pointless to discuss this hurricane hitting the U.S. at this time because absolutely nobody knows what it is going to do and the historical facts suggest that the U.S. will most likely not be affected by it anyhow.

Living in New England, I am especially cynical about weather forecasters. At least a dozen times a year, the local forecasters will breathlessly hype the next "northeaster" with 15-minute updates and whiz-bang graphics showing the utter havoc this coming winter storm may wreak upon the area, sending thousands of worried housewives into supermarkets to clear the shelves of milk and bread. Why milk and bread? I have no idea. But for some reason, people up here operate under the assumption that they must have mass quantities of milk and bread on hand during winter storms.

Most of the time, the much talked about snowstorm heads out to sea or takes an inland track, switching the snow over to rain. But even when we get hit hard, everybody is plowed and shovelled out again within 24 hours.

In my nearly 40 years of living in New England, I only remember ONE storm that truly shut the area down for more than a day. That was the blizzard of 1978. And ironically the forecasters totally missed that one until it was virtually on top of us.