Eagles Fan in 'Skins Land

This morning, I was surprised to log on to CNN.com and see the link "Atlantic's 1st named storm forms."  Looks like Mother Nature's throwing the book at us and ignoring our ordered calendar by tossing Subtropical Storm Andrea out at the Southeast coast.  Andrea evolved from a persistent mid-latitude gale center that has been drifting off to the southwest over the past few days, and has been at least partially responsible for our recent cool snap and gusty winds. 

"Subtropical," you say?  In 2002, the Tropical Prediction Center decided to start naming storms that exhibit both tropical and mid-latitude characteristics; that is, systems that contain the elements of warm central cores of tropical storms as well as the cold and warm fronts that define non-tropical systems.  These not-quite-tropical storms are typically less powerful than true warm-core systems because the energy is spread out over a wide area rather than concentrated toward the center.  Thus, it would actually be nice if Andrea decided to plow ashore into the parched Southeast rather than meander off the coast for the next few days before dissipating, which is the official forecast.

But back to hurricane season.  Forecasters, fresh from being burned by last year's El Nino-influenced dire-predictions-gone-wrong prognostication (but probably happy about it), are once again predicting more tropical storms than normal for the Atlantic and the Gulf.  While this could be bad news for anyone with property on the coast, inland areas that are now rain-starved may benefit from soggy remnants of big storms.  And keep in mind that a higher storm count doesn't necessarily mean that the coast will get pummeled more than normal (in 2003, Isabel was the only storm out of 21 that caused any kind of real damage to the U.S.).

And despite the notoriety they get, hurricanes are one of nature's ways of keeping the planet's climate balanced by transferring warm air north.  We just happen to get in the way, for better or for worse.