Back in Starkville....

Well I got back a couple of days ago from Vidor, TX...  I was planning to stay out for a few weeks but the pattern looks SO bad that I decided to come home early...  I always say you win some and lose most when it comes to storm chasing...  That's just the game of storm chasing so honestly I'm used to it by now...  The good news is I got to see some of my best friends for a few days which is always a great thing!

This year is quickly starting to remind me of 2006...  Maybe not that bad but close...  Also as of now I not seeing much of a hurricane season either....  The SOI is going strongly negative (El Nino Signature) so that should lead to a LOT of enhanced wind shear this year in the tropics....  We all know that wind shear is not a friend of hurricanes so again I'm not seeing a lot of tropical activity this year...  Of course there will be storms out there and there may even be a few landfalling hurricanes but overall I think the numbers will be way down...  Remember though just look at a year like 1992...  There was only 6 named storms with only one hurricane that made US landfall...  Unfortunately that one hurricane was Category-5 Andrew....  So again all it takes is one strong hurricane to make it a BAD year...  Hopefully that won't happen!!!

On a side note Galveston Island is slowly starting to get back to normal...  I was very impressed with the clean up efforts...  However, Bolivar Peninsula is a completely different story...  There really isn't much left and what is left is in bad shape...  You do see things starting to be built back but again the damage really is horrible still....  Not at Katrina level but it ranks right up there with some of the worst damage I have ever seen in my life...  I love to study/learn about hurricanes but I HATE what they can do sometimes...  All I can say is if you live near the coast when a hurricane is coming, PLEASE LEAVE!!!  It will probably save your life!