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Humberto Should Humble Us

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 17, 2007

If Tampa Bay area residents need further reminding that even the smallest glob of disturbed weather in the Gulf of Mexico bears watching during hurricane season, Hurricane Humberto, which blindsided the Texas-Louisiana coast early Thursday, did the trick.

The storm was a 35-mile-per-hour tropical depression at 10 a.m. Wednesday. But 18 hours later, it had mushroomed into an 85-mph, Category One hurricane, the fastest intensification ever recorded for a tropical cyclone so close to landfall, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Humberto caught many Texas and Louisiana residents flat-footed. They went to bed Wednesday night thinking they'd get a lot of rain and a little wind, but awoke to a hurricane that caused widespread damage and at least one death.

'It would be nice to know ... someday ... why this happened,' senior hurricane forecaster James Franklin wrote of the rapid intensification.

Yes, it would, but all Tampa Bay area residents need to know is that the gulf is an unpredictable, extremely fertile breeding ground for hurricanes - capable of fooling people who forecast weather for a living.
Hurricane season doesn't end until Nov. 30. Don't let down your guard.

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