Dr. Jeff Masters at WUnderground brightened my day with this bit of news:
La Niña continues to influence our weather, and has strengthened some in the past month, according the the latest discussion issued today by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. They predict that La Niña will continue at least until June, and probably into October. If this prediction holds true, we are likely to see another very active hurricane season in the Atlantic, as wind shear is typically quite low over the Atlantic during La Niña conditions. Dr. Bill Gray’s forecast (issued December 6) is calling for 17 tropical storms (average is 11), 9 hurricanes (average is 6), and 5 intense hurricanes (average is 2-3). It will be interesting to see if the stronger than expected La Niña conditions will cause him to raise his numbers in his forthcoming April 4 forecast for the 2006 hurricane season. The NOAA hurricane forecast will be issued in mid-May.
News like that just makes you want to ask how levee repairs are going in Louisiana, doesn’t it?
In other news, the folks at work, after finally hearing about just how many tornadoes and hurricanes/tropical storms I’ve been through, have asked that I spend storm season someplace where we don’t write that much property business, on the basis of my being a storm magnet.
(Actually that last paragraph hasn’t happened….yet. However, I do need to remind my boss that we don’t write coverage in Hawai’i or Bermuda.)