Hurricane Season. Hurray hurray. And Phew. What a season, hey?
To sum up the 2008 season: Officially we had 16 named storms, of which 8
were hurricanes, 5 major (cat 3 or higher). An above-average year (average
is 11 named storms, 6 hurricanes, 3 major) and the folks who play the
'Forecast-Exactly-How-Many-Storms-We'll-Get' roulette game were close to
the mark for a change. I suppose if you stick to the same lottery numbers
every time, eventually you'll be lucky.
I think some of you may have noticed in my fabulous (!), brilliant (?!?),
and witty (??!!) entries this year that I didn't *always* agree with the
official assessment. In my opinion there were about 4 storms that
shouldn't have been named, and one hurricane that could have remained a
Tropical Storm. But despite that, we did have some rather large hurricanes
(remember Big Beautiful Bertha?) - most of which had remarkable aim and
managed to hit Cuba or some other island en route to wherever it ended up.
It was most definitely an active year. I believe the crystal balls for
next year are already being polished. From NOAA the 2009 forecast is 14-18
named storms and 10 hurricanes. I forecast that 12 months from today we'll
know if the NOAA forecast was accurate. :)
As I wrap up this year, I'd like to thank those who helped me... my
fabulous technical support - the computing guys at CMS/USF for the
listserve, and C.H. in Texas for maintaining the blog. I should also thank
the St. Pete Times - after that article, the readership increased a tad...
from an estimated 600-700 to over 2000. Eeek!! I need to thank our
intrepid reporters in the field - it seemed like there was someone who
read this in the path of almost every storm this year - from Bermuda to
the Caribbean to Texas to Canada! It was pretty darn tootin' cool getting
real picture "real-time" reports from you all. I also thank all of you for
continuing to read this drivel ;) ... the hilarious comments I got back
made the whole thing so much more entertaining (for me and your
fellow-readers). Finally, my thanks to my friends, family and colleagues
for their sometimes futile efforts in keeping me sane and helping me
retain a sense of humour... good luck with that ;) And to my producers,
director, and fellow-actors... oh, sorry, wrong thank-you speech.
Have a wonderful 'off-season' (hurricane), best of luck for those whose
'cyclone season' is just beginning! (I got your notes - thank you), happy
holidays, wishing you all a great New Year, keep laughing, keep enjoying
the obscure words etc etc...
It's time for me to hibernate now... that's all for now folks.
TOODLE PIP, ;)
J.
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Disclaimer... blah blah blah.... (see the website blog archives if you
want to read it).
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