Important changes for the 2010 Hurricane season

[Caribbean Traveler]

Several very important changes will occur with this 2010 hurricane season. The Saffir-Simpson scale will become the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. Why the change? The hurricane center is decoupling storm surge parameters with a certain category hurricane. Depending on it's wind field size a similar hurricane can have a much larger or smaller storm surge associated with it. This is a great move by the hurricane center. The second important change is connnected with the lead time of watches and warnings. Previously, tropical storm / hurricane watches were posted with 36 hours of lead time. That changes to 48 hours this hurricane season. Tropical storm / hurricane warnings previously gave 24 hours of lead time. That now changes to 36 hours. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. The public will be warned earlier, but will this lead to more false alarms?

For a complete list of the changes visit the national hurricane center website: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/nhc_new_2010.pdf

[Ninjaguy]

I have a feeling that people are going to get ticked when the forecast goes bad. Add an extra twelve hours for evacuations? I'm making the call, bad idea. If it's looking like a bad storm, people leave anyway.

[Wild Banshe]

I have a feeling that people are going to get ticked when the forecast goes bad. Add an extra twelve hours for evacuations? I'm making the call, bad idea. If it's looking like a bad storm, people leave anyway.

Ninja, may have a point. I wonder if there are any statistics of error increase the farther out the forecast is made?

[Florida Beach Gal]

I have a feeling that people are going to get ticked when the forecast goes bad. Add an extra twelve hours for evacuations? I'm making the call, bad idea. If it's looking like a bad storm, people leave anyway.

Ninja, may have a point. I wonder if there are any statistics of error increase the farther out the forecast is made?

That would seem reasonable.....

[Mr. B]

I would reserve judgement on this until we see how it works. I would guess that the folks in charge have done plenty of research before implementing this.

[Ninjaguy]

I would reserve judgement on this until we see how it works. I would guess that the folks in charge have done plenty of research before implementing this.

Pie in the sky. When does the government think before acting?