Nine Days Into the Season, Hello Arlene!
 

Tropical Storm Arlene

http://hurricane.accuweather.com/hur...imagetype=move

Season's First Tropical Storm Heads to Cuba
By JENNIFER KAY, AP

MIAMI (June 9) - Tropical Storm Arlene developed Thursday in the northwest Caribbean Sea, edging closer to western Cuba as the Atlantic hurricane season's first named storm. Gulf Coast residents, including those in storm-battered Florida, were warned to beware.

Updated: 02:17 PM EDT
Season's First Tropical Storm Heads to Cuba
By JENNIFER KAY, AP

MIAMI (June 9) - Tropical Storm Arlene developed Thursday in the northwest Caribbean Sea, edging closer to western Cuba as the Atlantic hurricane season's first named storm. Gulf Coast residents, including those in storm-battered Florida, were warned to beware.



Arlene had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph after strengthening from a tropical depression that formed Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. Tropical storms have top sustained winds of 39 mph to 74 mph.

At 11 a.m. EDT, the storm's center was about 165 miles south-southeast of the western tip of Cuba. It was moving north at about 8 mph, and this motion could bring the storm's center near western Cuba as early as Thursday night, forecasters said.

The large storm's winds and rain extended 150 miles to the north and east from its poorly organized center, meaning parts of the Florida Keys could start getting rain later Thursday, forecasters said.

Arlene was expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico by Friday, and residents from Florida to Louisiana were told to keep an eye on the tropical storm.

''Our best estimate of the track possibilities are that anywhere from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle could expect the center to be approaching them by the middle of the weekend,''

I guess those of us on the "gulf coast" will be saying a lot of prayers!!

Hopefully everyone will offer up a prayer or two for us.

I just can't believe it!

The Weather Channel has already dispatched Jim Cantori to Marco Island.

I don't know about the Jim Cantore thing, but I'll make a $5 bet with anyone on this forum that the path projected today (June 9), showing a possible landfall from Louisiana to the Fla panhandle, will not be where the storm goes. Living in Florida, I have tried to evaluate how often the forecasters are right and how often they are wrong. I think the "wrongs" outnumber the "rights" by a significant margin.

Oh jeez. Has it already been a year since the last hurricane season? No mas!!