Seen on the AP wire:
With the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season a few hours away, researcher William Gray released his newest forecast Thursday still showing an expectation for 17 named storms and nine hurricanes, five of them intense.
Meanwhile, to add a bit more punch to the reminder that tomorrow is the official start of storm season ‘07, Dr. Masters notes that something’s brewing in the Caribbean:
A large area of disturbed weather developed over the Western Caribbean last night. This disturbance is bringing winds of up to 55 mph over the ocean, according to the 7:07am EDT pass of the QuikSCAT satellite. The NOAA Buoy off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula recorded winds this morning at 30mph, gusting to 35mph. There is no circulation evident on QuikSCAT or satellite loops, but the disturbance does have the potential to develop into a tropical depression by Saturday as it moves to the northeast over Western Cuba and South Florida. A Hurricane Hunter aircraft is scheduled to investigate the system at 2pm EDT on Friday.
Dr. Masters also offers a wrap up of the major Atlantic storm forecasts:
- CSU: 17 named storms, 9 hurricanes, 5 cat 3+’s
- TSR, Inc: 16 named storms, 9 hurricanes, 4 cat 3+’s
- NOAA: 13-17 named storms, 7-10 hurricanes, 3-5 cat 3+’s
And just remember: for the next few months, within the hallowed halls of insurance home offices around the country, the large property underwriters and cat modelers will be easy to identify, as the folks looking a little concerned, with bitten-off fingernails, and muttering about the most recent updates from the National Hurricane Center.