2009 Bahamas Weather Conference Wrap
Three days in the Bahamas with the world’s leading weather forecasters and hurricane experts…a weather man’s dream and the story of where I was last week.
Director of the National Hurricane Center Bill Read kicked off the 13th Annual Bahamas Weather Conference Thursday morning with a review of the 2008 season. The headline stealer of the conference was Hurricane Ike. We covered logistics related to the storm and how things were handled before, during and after the storm as opposed to focusing solely on the meteorology. It’s important to learn how the community, government and local forecasters handled these storms and how Central North Carolina might apply it to a dangerous storm like Ike. Bill Read will be in The Triangle May 6 with the NOAA P3 Hurricane Hunter airplane and you can see it!
The Weather Channel Hurricane expert, Dr. Steve Lyons was also there and contributed to several panels at the conference. Dr. Lyons truly is an expert in the field, not only because of his knowledge of current events, but his historical recollection was perfect when I asked him about Hurricane Floyd and its impact on North Carolina ten years ago. Dr. Steve Lyons also joined meteorologist Stephanie Abrams a few times for live shots for The Weather Channel.
Colorado State’s Drs. William Gray and Phil Klotzbach, who are best known for yearly hurricane outlooks, talked about the upcoming season. The outlook calls for a near average season, but as was stated many times during the conference, it only takes one monster storm to make it a bad season. Drs. Gray and Lyons were also part of an always spirited global warming debate.
I was able to talk, one on one, with all of the experts mentioned above and you can see more of that during NBC17’s Hurricane Special in May. Some of the other news and points to come out of this year’s conference:
Hurricanes don’t have to be major storms any more to cause billions of dollars of damage to coastal communities.
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane scale will be undergoing some changes this year or next.
Hurricane Watches and Warnings will be issued earlier than in past years.
The United States Government will issue their 2009 seasonal hurricane outlook on May 26, 2009.
In 1974 there was a 250 miles error for a 48 hour hurricane forecast; today it is only 100 miles.
As usual, The Bahamas provided a spectacular background to a great conference. While the day was spent with colleagues from around the country in session, we did find plenty of time to enjoy the wonderful food and beaches.
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