Predicting Hurricane Katrina

It doesn't take a scientist to notice how absolutely wrong the hurricane predictions regarding the path of Katrina have been. First, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Katrina would make landfall in central Florida and veer north to track along the eastern seaboard. But Katrina went west and then southwest to make landfall in southern Florida.

Oops! Obviously, the NHC had to go back to the drawing boards. Next came the announcement that Katrina would cross southern Florida into the Gulf of Mexico and then veer north. Afterward, Katrina would travel along the west coast of Florida to make another landfall somewhere east of Mobile, Alabama. Instead, Katrina continued on a westerly track, and strengthened.

Oops! Again. Now the NHC is predicting that Katrina will make landfall in the vicinity of New Orleans.

Stay tuned. There may be future oops.

In the meantime, since it seems that anybody's guess is valid right now, I'll throw in my prediction. Katrina will stall in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, continue to gain strength, then reverse direction and go back across Florida, making landfall just south of Tampa. The storm will leave a path of devastation across Florida and regain strength once over warm Atlantic waters. Katrina will then make a sharp left turn and head up toward the Carolina Outer Banks.

As an aside, female anchor, Kelly Cass, on the Weather Channel just said, "You know, sometimes these storms get so big that they alter the environment." Superb meteorological analysis, don't you think? Ignorant me, I always thought that storms come with the environment.