Sky Watch
Weather and astronomy
Real Name: David Tewes Member Since: September 24, 2007 Last Signed In: September 05, 2008 Profile Views: 1454 Blog Views: 4185 When will the next hurricane strike? Spectacular sunrises and sunsets reported The peak of hurricane season is here Where's Gustav heading? Tropical Storm Gustav forms Tropical disturbance getting organized Hurricane forecast projections upped The Perseids revisited Improving hurricane forecasting Don't forget September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 August 08 September 08 
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It almost sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, but a panel of researchers has concluded:
Do you you believe global warming is occurring? If so, how much of it do you think is being caused by people?
Unless you live under a rock, you’re probably aware last Friday was the first day of summer.
What you probably didn’t hear was that is the earliest summer solstice since 1896. Summer typically starts on June 21, but this year it began on June 20. The simple explanation is because 2008 is a leap year. For a full explanation, check out this Earth & Sky article.
There are no guarantees, but at least one forecaster believes there will be a near-normal number of hurricanes and tropical storms this year.
More importantly, AccuWeather.com's forecast calls for a relatively large percentage of those storms to strike the United States. AccuWeather forecaster Joe Bastardi believes that risk is 1.6 times the norm. He also believes the best chance for early storm development is in the western or central Gulf of Mexico. This is based primarily on very warm water in the western and central Gulf, cool water in the western Caribbean Sea, the expected June steering currents in the central Gulf, and a drier-than-normal pattern in the northwest Caribbean. The forecast holds that the primary period of hurricane threat will run from mid-August to mid-October and will encompass the entire Gulf and Atlantic. Anyone else care to venture a forecast? |
