What is the Midwest Hurricane Center???

[recmod]

I have come across a website with an official looking title of "Midwest Hurricane Center".

Does anyone have any information on this site?? Is it a valid site with any sort of meteorological credentials? The reason I am skeptical is from my reading of the 2004 season storm summaries presented on this website. In nearly every case, the storms were sensationalized, with the top wind speeds being bumped above the official NHC statistics. The damage figures were also hyped way above the actual totals. Here's a few examples:

Hurricane Charley is listed as a 160 mph Cat 5 hurricane that caused $30 billion dollars in damage. While Charley was certainly an historical event, there has been no evidence to support a Cat 5 claim, and the damage was nowhere near the quoted $30 billion ($14 billion is stated on the NHC site)

Hurricane Ivan is claimed on this website to have struck Pensacola with 135 mph sustained winds. Ivan was not a Cat 4 hurricane at landfall.


Hurricane Danielle is identified on this site as having reached 115 mph (Cat 3 status), while, in reality, the storm peaked at 105mph.

The Midwest Hurricane Center states that Hurricane Jeanne made landfall at 125mph and caused "over $10 billion in damages in the USA. The NHC states Jeanne reached 120mph and the total damage was about $6.8 billion.

I am not trying to "bash" the creators of the Midwest Hurricane Center Site in any way. The people responsible obviously took a lot of time and effort to put their site together. There is a lot of valid information with links to various models and storm-related sites. I just don't understand why it was necessary to over-dramatize what was already a very destructive and historical hurricane season. Presenting unsubstantiated ( and sometimes blatantly false) information as factual statements reduces the overall credibility of the site.

Any comments?

--Lou

[MWatkins]

Hi Lou...

That is GreatOne's (Tom S's) website. He goes out of his way to make his forecasts look official...in fact he often copies preliminary reports straight from the NHC/TPC site and changes facts to match his personal opinion.

Unfortunately...all that serves is to spread misinformation. His personal opinion is not based in science or analysis...but instead around some odd facination with worst-case scenarios. He has been banned at least 50 times from this site in the past for misleading/lying/copying information etc.

You can rest easy that there is not one piece of credible info from that site that wasn't either made up or copied from someplace else.

MW

[Derek Ortt]

no credibility to it at all.

Not so great one is a joke. He has no meteorological training at all, nor does he have any classwork

[hurricanetrack]

He has sent me emails asking me to join his group within Yahoo! or something like that. It even says on his invitation that if you are tired of bad forecasts from the NHC and hate Storm2k, then come on over to MWHC.

Those are not the exact words, but it is very close.

I never even replied.

This guy reminds me a lot of Syndrome from The Incredibles. Maybe we should call him "Hurricane Boy".

[Hurricanehink]

This guy reminds me a lot of Syndrome from The Incredibles. Maybe we should call him "Hurricane Boy".

Great idea! He is getting annoying.

[Scorpion]

I can't believe that they declared that system a few weeks ago a tropical storm and even suggested warnings!

[kevin]

Yes and it was official enough that for a second I went 'no way the nhc upgraded that swirl!' gave a curse, and exclaimed 'Damnations upon you greatone'

[Andrew92]

Not to mention, he didn't even seem to know that Arlene is the first name on the list! He called the swirl "Tropical Storm One."

He has even less than zero credibility as far as I'm concerned. On a scale of 0 to 10, I'd rate him a -10.

Also, notice he has a disclaimer that says that his forecasts are NOT official. Yet he says to go here if people hate the NHC or Storm2K. Hmmm, sounds like he's trying to be official to me. Trashy One, it's either you're official or you're not, pick one and stick with it.

One last addition: He has a link that is supposed to go to the NHC. But try clicking it once. He doesn't even have the URL down enough to cite it!

-Andrew92

[cyclonaut]

Yeah that man needs help!

I have'nt visited that award winning site in a while,I see its still not offical though it sure is a fecal & they are still tracking storms in the Atlatnic Ocean..good for them!

[Andrew92]

Yeah that man needs help!

I have'nt visited that award winning site in a while,I see its still not offical though it sure is a fecal & they are still tracking storms in the Atlatnic Ocean..good for them!

I knew he was a guy, but I had no idea he was a man.

-Andrew92

[HurricaneBill]

Plus, he was pretty much stalking Barometer Bob a few years ago.

[hurricanetrack]

He just wrote me on a very old account (how he found it, I have no idea) and complained that S2K is bashing him.

He also says that he has data to prove Ivan was cat-4 at landfall.

However, I had an RM Young anemometer on the beach at Gulf Shores at 5 meters with excellent exposure.

Josh Wurman had a 10 meter tower plus his Doppler on Wheels just inland from Gulf Shores.

There were no cat-4 gusts that I am aware of- and my wind readings almost exactly match what Josh Wurman recorded from his location. Sustained near 90 with gusts to NO MORE than 115. That's MPH too!

So- until the MWHC deploys field teams with solid-state equipment or can provide digital data with time stamps and GPS location info, their data can not be taken seriously. Nor will it. Even the NHC considers my data UNOFFICIAL- I know my place among such things, and do not espouse false claims of extraordinary wind and damage. Why so much effort is put in to doing this from people like Great One is beyond me.

His name is Tom Smugula or something like that- in case you didn't know.

[HURAKAN]

He also has Bonnie as a hurricane, and if he thinks we are bashing him, tell him that he is 100% right. Maybe if his advisories are accurate, we wouldn't have bother to do so. If you are going to create a website to advise people over systems that could be a harm to them, please, do it like Storm2K and HurricaneHollow.com, on a professional way, and not to bash those that are doing a good job and you are just wasting your time and the time of those that may have had the bad luck of encountering your website.

With no further due,

Sandy Delgado

[DoctorHurricane2003]

seflcanes@yahoo.com has invited you to join the MWHCtom group!


Come Join the MWHC This season we will have more features. IF NOAA gets restricted then MWHC has claimed that it will be the official FREE source of hurricane info. Also Make sure to tune into Jim Willaims hurricane season special on May 1st at 8pm. Jim will go over storm2k and how its a joke.

If we report him to the government, will he go away? lol

[Andrew92]

This guy reminds me a lot of Syndrome from The Incredibles. Maybe we should call him "Hurricane Boy".

Great idea! He is getting annoying.

GETTING annoying? He got annoying a LONG time ago!

-Andrew92

[DoctorHurricane2003]

Oh no, it gets worse.

You were in Ivan. Tell Mark Suddith about the exploding houses and the wind damage. He was in Gulf Shores which did not get the worse conditions. The coast on The Florida side got the near cat4 winds. I have proof. Also in Orange Beach 7 miles from the worse conditions 124knot gust was measured. here is my Ivan best track.

Tropical Cyclone Report
(insert Ivan copy report here

My response:

Yes I was in Ivan. There were no exploding houses. There was some moderate wind damage. Gusts went into the cat 4 range, but the winds were not. That is not your best track, that is the NHC's that got altered. Go away, leave me alone, don't email me again or you will be reported for spam. You are messing with the wrong person. Understand?

[Derek Ortt]

what great one convienently forgets to say is that the 124KT gusts were at about 200 ft in elevation, reducing to about 105 at the surface.

NHC almost went with 100KT for the official landfall intensity of Ivan, but in the end decided to remain consistent with the FL data and keep it at 105KT

[Jevo]

mmm beeer

[HurricaneBill]

seflcanes@yahoo.com has invited you to join the MWHCtom group!


Come Join the MWHC This season we will have more features. IF NOAA gets restricted then MWHC has claimed that it will be the official FREE source of hurricane info. Also Make sure to tune into Jim Willaims hurricane season special on May 1st at 8pm. Jim will go over storm2k and how its a joke.

Jim Williams. There's another winner.

He was just as annoyed at Greatone as the rest of us but would refuse to ban him because it might unintentionally ban others with similar ISPs.

[tomboudreau]

His link to the Hurricane Center doesnt even work. It goes to http://www.nhc.gov! What a fraud.