You can get updates on storms here:
NOAA’s NHC Site
Weather underground

Current tracks put Ike going below Florida though the lower Keys and then paralleling the gulf coast of Florida, Ike’s strongest winds going up the entire coast.  This is not looking good for anyone in south Florida.

We are still watching Ike.  He could hit us here in southeastern Florida but now it is looking like he’ll make his way into the gulf.

Also, gas lines are starting to form here.  I saw a few stations that had lines going into the street.  Luckily, both of our vehicles are full but I may get up early to top off one of the cars tomorrow.

Now the one to watch is Ike. He is expected to get big over the next few days and the extended track puts south Florida right in the middle (not good for us). They are expecting him to continue to the northwest until tomorrow night (Thursday Sept 4th) and Friday morning when he’ll start a more westerly track, then bend down to a a south-western track. he is also expected to develop into a major (category 3 or greater) hurricane.

This bend will most likely determine where he will go next week, whether he’ll go under Florida into the gulf (though the southern Bahamas and Cuba), into Florida, or swing north into the Carolinas (or further north).

People I work with are already making preparations for Ike (at work), getting network operations fully functional and the emergency response teams are starting some preparation work. Nothing too serious but getting ready never hurts.

Josephine isn’t expected to do much. NHC seems to predict that she will enter in some unfavorable conditions and deteriorate late this week and early into next week. Let’s hope this prediction turns out to be true.

The big story / storm right now is hurricane Gustav, a monstrous category 4 storm that is expected to become this season’s first category 5 hurricane.

As you can see, his track is set to take him over extreme western Cuba tonight and then accellerate as he heads for our gulf coast, potentially Louisiana near the Texas border but he could hit New Orleans and we could have a repeat of Katrina. I really hope that people in that area are heeding warnings and are spending today securing their homes and getting out long before the storm hits.

We are also keeping a close eye on tropical storm Hanna.

She is heading to the Bahamas over the course of the next two to four days and then it now looks like she might head towards south Florida..

NOAA is also monitoring a strong storm system over the Cape Verde islands off of the coast of Africa. This system has the high potential to become a tropical depression over the next day or so. Luckily, nothing has formed too quickly or strongly over the Atlantic.

So it looks like right now that conditions are only favorable for fast and strong development over the north-western Caribbean Sea and in the Gulf of Mexico. Systems in this area should be closely monitored though the rest of the season.

I guess mother nature just couldn’t wait?

I hope this year is a quiet year when it comes to storms, but we’ve had a reprieve for the past two years so I think we mau have some activity this year.