I spoke with the forecaster responsible for last week's "bear
watch," and he said that a forecaster at the first office he worked at
constantly used that phrase whenever he thought all eyes should be on
the tropics for possible cyclone development. He said that other offices
always knew who was writing the discussion because of that phrase (this
was before forecaster numbers or names were included in the discussions).
Our forecaster used "bear watch" in reference to the possible
reformation of Ivan in the Gulf of Mexico last week.
JL - Houston/Galveston National Weather Service Office
Looks like many of you were right after all!!
