Whether Tropical Storm Barry was ever really a tropical storm is a matter of some debate, but at any rate, it’s not anymore: the National Hurricane Center downgraded it to a tropical depression at 11:00 AM and issued its final advisory on the system at 5:00 PM, declaring that it was “rapidly becoming extratropical.” (Margie Kieper says it was extratropical all along.) So what we have now is essentially a June nor’easter that will head up the East Coast this weekend, bringing much-needed rain to various places along the way. This may go down as the least harmful, most beneficial tropical cyclone (or perhaps I should say “tropical cyclone”) in recent years.

Alan Sullivan, however, is slightly alarmed: “Meanwhile tropical storm Barbara is drifting NE toward the mountainous coast of SE Mexico and Guatemala. … Barbara and Barry share a single elongated envelope of tropical moisture and energy. Such storm pairs are common at high season but unusual at this time of year. I find this morning’s satellite a rather disquieting sight. But there were early storms last year also, and it meant nothing.” Indeed. As Dr. Jeff Masters noted yesterday, “There is no relationship between high activity early in hurricane season and high activity during the main August-October peak of the season.”

At least 146 German police officers are injured, 25 of them seriously, in clashes with about 2,000 protestors ahead of Group of Eight summit in Rostock, Germany, police spokesman says.

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Three suspects have been arrested in an alleged terror plot aimed at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, a law enforcement official tells CNN.

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I have no idea what got me thinking about this, but I believe my current ZIP code is the ninth one I’ve lived in: 06106, 06111, 90007, 10040, 85215, 46556, 46637, 85301, and now, 37919. (And then of course there’s 14221, which I spent so much time in, I feel like I might as well have lived there. Same goes for 85218.)

How many ZIP codes have y’all lived in? Anyone got more than nine?

P.S. I’m not going to list all my addresses, but I’ve had 12 of those: four in 90007 (L.A.) and one for each other ZIP code. And I’ve moved between and among those addresses… let’s see now… 19 times, I believe. With all but one of those moves being in the last eight years. :)

Jessica Cutler, of Washingtonienne fame, has filed for bankruptcy.

Heh.

I’ve heard of a bench-clearing brawl, but a brawl on the bench between two teammates? The pitcher and catcher, no less? Heh. (Hat tip: The Backer.) More here, here and here.

Maybe the first day of hurricane season isn’t so meaningless! As of 5:00 PM Eastern time, Tropical Storm Barry has formed, and is expected to head toward Florida. It’s already quite rainy there.

P.S. This is the first time since 1968’s Hurricane Abby that a tropical cyclone has formed on June 1.

UPDATE: Margie Kieper is unimpressed.

UPDATE 2: The Storm Track is equally unimpressed: “I am not convinced that this system is even a tropical storm.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Jeff Masters provides some more historical perspective:

The hurricane season of 2007 is in second place for the earliest year that the second named storm occurred. The record is held by 1887, when the second named storm formed on May 17. Third place is held by 1934, when the second storm of the year formed on June 4. The second storm of 1934 was also the worst June hurricane on record. It hit Central America as a Category 1 hurricane, dropping up to 25 inches of rain on Honduras, triggering landslides that killed 3,000 people.

There is no relationship between high activity early in hurricane season and high activity during the main August-October peak of the season. For example, the 1934 hurricane season turned out to be an ordinary season with 11 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and no intense hurricanes.

The Atlantic hurricane season officially starts today. Various forecasts say it’ll be a active season. Of course, the forecasts said that last season, too, and then the forecasters were blindsided by Saharan dust and El Niño, proving once again that global warming is a fraud global warming is real WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE long-term weather forecasting is, like, hard. And stuff.

Anyway, it’s nice to see a bit less hysterical hype accompanying the start of the season this year. Last year’s media circus surrounding June 1 was rather silly. As this post’s title states (and as I pointed out last year, too), there is nothing particularly special about the date June 1; the difference between May 31 and June 1, in terms of the likelihood of tropical formation, is no more drastic than the difference between June 1 and 2, or the difference between May 30 and 31. The first day of June is just an arbitrary cutoff date set by meteorological bureaucrats, and as Subtropical Storm Andrea proved, Mother Nature is under no obligation to pay attention to the meteorologists’ calendar.

The only thing that really changes today is that the National Hurricane Center starts issuing regular Tropical Weather Outlooks (at 5:30 AM, 11:30 AM, 5:30 PM and 10:30 PM). Here’s the second one of the season. It talks about a broad, disorganized area of low pressure over the Gulf of Mexico that is unlikely to develop into anything, although “only a small increase in the organization could bring the system to tropical or subtropical cyclone status.”

Well, actually, there’s at least one other thing that changes today. In recognition of the start of hurricane season, I moved my weather blogroll to the top of the right-hand column. :)

UPDATE: So much for “meaningless”! For the first time since 1968, a tropical storm has formed on June 1. Heh.

Peggy Noonan has a good column on the widening rift between the Bush Administration and the conservative movement, and more broadly on the administration’s failures. Money quote:

What I came in time to believe is that the great shortcoming of this White House, the great thing it is missing, is simple wisdom. Just wisdom–a sense that they did not invent history, that this moment is not all there is, that man has lived a long time and there are things that are true of him, that maturity is not the same thing as cowardice, that personal loyalty is not a good enough reason to put anyone in charge of anything, that the way it works in politics is a friend becomes a loyalist becomes a hack, and actually at this point in history we don’t need hacks.

Bill Quick writes, “In the vein of LBJ and Walter Cronkite, I think it is fair to say that if George W. Bush has lost Peggy Noonan, then he has lost the Republican Party.” (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

For those who haven’t been following Matt Drudge’s orgasm of paranoia over Google’s new “Street View” feature, you can get caught up on all the fun with this BoingBoing post: Google Maps is spying on my cat!

Personally, I see this as yet another effort (along with the publication date of Harry Potter 7) to prevent me from passing the bar. Why would I want to review Torts and Contracts when I can spend my time virtually touring the streets of New York, looking at such landmarks as David Letterman’s theater, Rupert Gee’s Hello Deli, my old workplace, my old apartment and nearby Fort Tryon Park, the pet store 33rd & Bird, Central Park, Ground Zero and the World Trade Center PATH Station, Rockefeller Center, and of course my favorite place in New York, St. Patrick’s Cathedral? Etc., etc.

P.S. Take a virtual drive across the Brooklyn Bridge! Just go here and then click the NW arrow repeatedly.

You can do the same thing with the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, and various others.

More on sex and porn, and also, Star Trek. (SFW; hat tip: InstaPundit.)