We Predict 5 Hurricanes... No... 8 Hurricanes

By Dan Rattiner

Last Thursday was the official start of the hurricane season. And so the official in charge of making the prediction of what the hurricane season was going to be like this summer got up in front of the headquarters in Colorado and said that the ocean had warmed up off Los Angeles and, because of that, we can expect three to five major hurricanes to hit the eastern seaboard this summer and another dozen hurricanes with slightly lesser winds and rains. So, it'll be pretty bad.

Last year, the official predicted between eight and ten major hurricanes on the eastern seaboard, because of some factors with El Nino south of Hawaii and we didn't have even one. It was the first time in thirty-five years that not one single hurricane hit the East Coast.

The year before that, he predicted we'd have an off year with very few hurricanes because things were quiet in Botswana, Africa and at least seven hit, including four that passed within ten miles of my 92-year-old mother in Pompano Beach, Florida during a span of six weeks -- she stood her ground -- and another that flattened and flooded New Orleans.

The year before that, he was wrong too.

How much do we pay this guy? And how much does the big weather forecasting headquarters in Colorado cost us taxpayers?

I think we would be better off if we fire this guy, cut off funding, dynamite the Colorado lab and just find some guy shuffling down the street in Denver, spruce him up, give him ten bucks and put him on the air.

"Hurricane season has started," he could say. "Good luck."

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