08-14-2007, 06:25 PM
I don't think the computers or the government are wrong about any of this. I went to a presentation by a scientist from the Central Pacific Hurricane Center about local hurricanes recently and, even though they have very good technology, they cannot tell us exactly what will happen. That scientist said that we shouldn't relax with the myth that the Big Island is invulnerabe to a direct hit. If the agencies err on the side of cautiousness, it's way better than going through the fiasco of Hurricane Katrina.
The news media is another issue. News is more about profits, these days, than information. Histrionics means more viewership which means more advertising dollars. Don't mistake that for what some local agencies might be trying to do for us.
The 8:00p update on Flossie has it downgraded to a Cat 1 hurricane with max sustainable winds at 85 MPH. The eye has disappeared and the hurricane is weakening. They probably had a good idea that this would happen but they couldn't tell us to relax because there is always a chance that it would gain strength and turn northward. In 2000, they couldn't predict that a storm would develop right above Hilo and dump so much water on the East side.
When you look at the weather maps, I don't know that you can assume that these two large mountains that impress us puny humans would have much effect on a tropical cyclone the size of Flossie. It's way larger than than the land mass of the BI. The water temperature and the wind shear are not so visible, and probably play a greater part in these dynamics than our large volcanoes (yeah, these large sea mounts may have a role in this, but I'm not a geoclimatologist, or whatever).
Anyway, how much were we put out by all of the caution?
Edited by - Les C on 08/14/2007 22:30:24
The news media is another issue. News is more about profits, these days, than information. Histrionics means more viewership which means more advertising dollars. Don't mistake that for what some local agencies might be trying to do for us.
The 8:00p update on Flossie has it downgraded to a Cat 1 hurricane with max sustainable winds at 85 MPH. The eye has disappeared and the hurricane is weakening. They probably had a good idea that this would happen but they couldn't tell us to relax because there is always a chance that it would gain strength and turn northward. In 2000, they couldn't predict that a storm would develop right above Hilo and dump so much water on the East side.
When you look at the weather maps, I don't know that you can assume that these two large mountains that impress us puny humans would have much effect on a tropical cyclone the size of Flossie. It's way larger than than the land mass of the BI. The water temperature and the wind shear are not so visible, and probably play a greater part in these dynamics than our large volcanoes (yeah, these large sea mounts may have a role in this, but I'm not a geoclimatologist, or whatever).
Anyway, how much were we put out by all of the caution?
Edited by - Les C on 08/14/2007 22:30:24