Miami Herald

[jlauderdal]

It appears good old Max Mayfield has been hitting this board and is a little uptighht about us making our forecasts. Funny thing is I have found this board to be as accurate as NHC and honestly a few days ahead of anything NHC puts out.

entire article can be found at http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/


Forecasters: Use Internet, but rely on our analysis

On the brink of another hurricane season, forecasters advised Internet users to gather information about tropical weather but leave the analysis to professionals.

BY MARTIN MERZER

mmerzer@herald.com

He hastens to add that forecasting hasn't quite reached that degree of automation, but with another six-month hurricane season beginning Tuesday, many South Floridians will sit at their computers, dig through a wealth of data on the Internet and believe they are deducing the future strength and direction of a storm.

The advice from professionals: If you must try this at home (or in the office), at least pay attention to the analysis of trained meteorologists and guidance from experienced emergency managers. In other words, don't discount the importance of human expertise.

''It's good that people have access to the information,'' Mayfield said, ``and a certain percentage of those people will try to make their own forecasts. But studies show that most people base their actions on the advice of local officials -- and that's just what they should do.''

[hial2]

The trick is to discard the junk ("the sky is falling, the sky is falling") and key in on the info relayed by the real forecasters in this forum..
And we all know who they are!!