Tuesday is November 30, which in addition to being 25 days before Christmas, also is the official end to the 2010 Hurricane season.
Thankfully for all of us on the Gulf Coast, there weren't any major storms to get excited about. That wasn't the case worldwide, as tropical storms and hurricanes killed more than 250 people in the Caribbean and Central America this season.
In fact, no major storms hit the U.S. at all this year, and only one tropical Storm (Bonnie) made landfall in the states. And frankly, it's becoming a trend.
Now, please, I don't want Larry Gispard getting all into my grill here about taking things for granted. But in this reporter's 10 years in the Tampa Bay area, there has only been two years of major activity – 2004 & 2005. In fact, no major hurricanes have hit the country since Wilma (which hit South Florida) in October of 2005, over five years ago.
Now, too bad the insurance companies don't take that into consideration as they continue to increase premiums (if they're still even selling insurance) in the state. They'll be living off of 2004 & 2005 seemingly forever.
That's not what Dr. William Gray and other so-called experts were predicting earlier this year, however.
As USA Today reports,
In June, Colorado State's team of Gray and Phil Klotzbach had predicted that 18 named storms would form, of which 10 would be hurricanes. "This was one of our best forecasts," Gray says.
In May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast 14 to 23 named storms, of which eight to 14 would be hurricanes.
So you'd think that the forecasters might check themselves a bit before they boldly declare that 2011 will be another horrific season, right? Think again.
The USA Today article quotes Weather Channel meterologist Stu Ostro as saying,
"Early indications suggest odds are for an active season in 2011," Ostro says. "But keep in mind that regardless of how many storms there are, all it takes is one to bring disaster to a particular location."
With you and your kind out there, Mr. Ostro, how could we forget? Oh, and by the way, Dr. Gray will be giving his 2011 predictions a week from Wednesday.
Dick Morris apparently, has met his match in the meteorologist world.
This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2010.