At 7:35 PM, InstaPundit linked to me with the tagline “IT’S ‘HURRICANE ERNESTO’ NOW.” When I saw that, I scrambled over to the National Hurricane Center website, to see if Glenn knew something I don’t know. But no, Ernesto is still a tropical storm, with 60 mph winds, as of 8:00 PM EDT. I’m guessing Glenn’s confusion comes from this AP article, which erroneously states:
As the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, some residents prepared Saturday to evacuate amid forecasts of another hurricane entering the Gulf of Mexico. …
Gov. Kathleen Blanco said state officials were keeping an eye on Hurricane Ernesto, and the Army Corps was carefully tracking the storm’s movement, Lt. Gen. Carl Strock said.
The article is all over the Internet — and it’s completely wrong. Ernesto will probably be a hurricane soon, but it’s not yet. Where are the fact-checkers? Heads must roll! :)
The fact checkers are probably in the same place as the folks who advised Mayor “Wonka” Nagin about a year ago. Fort Walton Beach, FL, here - not nervous about Ernesto, but definitely watching. Gonna pick up an extra case of water at Sam’s tomorrow!
5 am advisory drastically changed the track and intensity forecasts, sending the storm through the Florida peninsula and back out to sea — then at about 5:05 updated it with fly-through data:
Your headline is now incorrect. It’s a hurricane, and expected to be Cat 2 by tonight.
Brendan,
This is somewhat off-topic, but I am curious about your thoughts on Mayor Nagin’s interview with Newsweek. I think it would make an interesting blog entry: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14519864/site/newsweek/
I doubt that Ernesto was ever a true hurricane. The highest sustained winds that I saw on the NOAA site was 64 KT (which is 73.6 mph). This is just short of the 74 mph threshold. Then 64 KT got rounded to 65 KT and then NOAA issued a press release saying winds were “near 75 mph”. Admittedly a close call, but when or where did anyone measure sustained winds of true hurricane strength?
And of course NOAA was wrong predicting a Category 3 and their continued prediction of hurricane warnings. This was just a tropical storm bringing needed rain to the Everglades and causing little damage. It is crying “wolf” and will hurt true hurricane warnings !
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August 26th, 2006 at 9:33:57 pm
The fact checkers are probably in the same place as the folks who advised Mayor “Wonka” Nagin about a year ago. Fort Walton Beach, FL, here - not nervous about Ernesto, but definitely watching. Gonna pick up an extra case of water at Sam’s tomorrow!
August 26th, 2006 at 10:22:03 pm
Spike Lee is going to on Charlie Rose’s Show on Monday. See www.charlierose.com
August 27th, 2006 at 5:34:14 am
5 am advisory drastically changed the track and intensity forecasts, sending the storm through the Florida peninsula and back out to sea — then at about 5:05 updated it with fly-through data:
Your headline is now incorrect. It’s a hurricane, and expected to be Cat 2 by tonight.
August 27th, 2006 at 5:47:30 am
Brendan,
This is somewhat off-topic, but I am curious about your thoughts on Mayor Nagin’s interview with Newsweek. I think it would make an interesting blog entry:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14519864/site/newsweek/
September 1st, 2006 at 4:37:09 pm
I doubt that Ernesto was ever a true hurricane. The highest sustained winds that I saw on the NOAA site was 64 KT (which is 73.6 mph). This is just short of the 74 mph threshold. Then 64 KT got rounded to 65 KT and then NOAA issued a press release saying winds were “near 75 mph”. Admittedly a close call, but when or where did anyone measure sustained winds of true hurricane strength?
And of course NOAA was wrong predicting a Category 3 and their continued prediction of hurricane warnings. This was just a tropical storm bringing needed rain to the Everglades and causing little damage. It is crying “wolf” and will hurt true hurricane warnings !