I distinctly remember the weather channel saying 3 days ago, that then tropicalstorm Flossie was going to die?

Question

WHY DO THEY GIVE PEOPLE A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY BY SAYING SUCH THINGS WHEN THEY DON'T KNOW FOR SURE?

Answer 1

I know what your saying.....evidently people above me do not understand the point your making. Why make a pin point prediction as to a system dieing, or going this way or that way, when they really don't know themselves! We get this all the time in Florida. I remember in 2004 when Francis and Jean were east of the Bahamas and were turning north, they said "nothing to worry about here". So people didn't pay attention. Then next thing you know......they turned west and crossed right over Florida.

Answer 2

Hurricane intensity forecasting is difficult and inexact. Among other things, it relies on a knowledge of the winds at different levels in the atmosphere, and on water temperature. Flossie is out in the middle of the Pacific and these things are just not known as well as they are closer to North America. Across land areas balloons are launched twice a day that record upper level winds, in the ocean there are few ships launching balloons, so forecasters have to rely more on computer models for their analysis data, but these can have problems in data-poor regions. If you're thinking that the hurricane center is not giving people adequate warning and information I'd disagree with you. At present it appears Flossie is weakening and moving to the south of the Hawaiian islands, I can't really say that the hurricane center did such a bad job with that. Sure, it intensified more than they expected, but at that point it was far from land. Give these guys a break, they do the best job they can. Even when they nail a forecast, like they did with Katrina, it doesn't mean people will listen to them.

Answer 3

First, get rid of all of the caps. Questions lose credibility when they are typed all in upper case. Secondly, weather forecasters only give predictions based upon what their weather models indicated and tell them. Earlier when they mentioned that they were basically just telling us what their computers and models showed, which was that it was going to die. Now, if you look it is starting to weaken a little and isn't as strong as it was. Sure, it didn't die all of the way down, but is has decreased in intensity. So the Weather Channel isn't completely wrong. Weather is such a hard thing to predict. Just be thankful that they are even able to tell us a hurricane is coming and what strength it is.

Answer 4

Flossie is a Hurricane now and will probably become a 1 on the scale and maybe even weaking to a tropical storm.