DieselDave
Super Moderator,
Standardization is used in many businesses as well as government, sports and many other venues. It's used so everyone has a structured plan and understanding of what's going on or what will happen in a given situation. It makes for quick reference as well as alleviates much of the decision making process and is absolutely invaluable in a time of crisis. One area it's not being used and it should be is hurricane and tropical storm reporting and forecasting. It would cost nothing to implement and would make it much easier for everyone in the country to know without seeing a map where the storm was going, when it would get there and or what area near there would be impacted. Sort of set up an epicenter for hurricane activity. The real beauty of this idea is the model is already in place. No longer would we have to listen to, "The center of the storm is currently located 270 miles SE of the Lesser Antilles" Wouldn't it save a lot of time and confusion if the forecaster just laid his cards on the table and said, "The center of the storm is 1730 miles SSE of Pensacola, FL. and will hit those poor suckers in about 9 days". Or, "An unusual situation has developed with Hurricane Sasha which is located 1730 miles SSE of Pensacola, FL. There is an upper level disturbance that is turning the storm north and it will impact the central FL. Peninsula before crossing and hitting those poor suckers in Pensacola." Now, doesn't my plan make a lot of sense? I would be thrilled if another epicenter location could be established but for at least the time being that doesn't seem likely. We are getting winds gust of about 45 at the moment from TS Cindy which somehow missed nailing us today. Does this mean my theory is already failing because Cindy missed us? Not at all and it's not the forecasters fault. Cindy had an internal navigation error, which caused it to drift west of "its" intended course. Upon landfall it regained its bearings and made a hard right turn so it could at least catch the edge of its target. I never said, storm navigation was perfect. Forecasters can't plan for navigation errors by the storm so when a storm misses my house the forecaster is still doing his/her job correctly in forecasting it to hit elsewhere. What I saw this AM and prompted me to write this tongue in cheek post is TS, soon to be Hurricane Dennis that currently has a 5 day model of nailing my little house again. The other thing that gave me this idea was a weather channel report 3 days ago stating, "TS Cindy is currently 775 miles SSE of Pensacola, FL. Why did they have to say that? The storm was well south of Cuba at the time. Well, it made me laugh and gave me this great or should I say pessimistic idea about Pensacola being the center of the weather suck. Hope ya chuckled.
