Hurricane Dean Headed to Texas? Maybe...

Erin is a rainmaking storm at this point filling up the now flooding state of Texas. Hurricane Dean is gaining strength in the Atlantic headed towards the islands of the Caribbean with the warm sultry waters of the Gulf beckoning. Expectations are Dean may reach category 4 status with room and downpours to spare. An absence of prior hurricane activity churning the waters in the Caribbean, especially the Lesser Antilles leaves conditions ripe for Hurricane Dean.

Trying to predict a major hurricane's path is akin to a tiny toddler driving a Hummer - it is not going to be pristine in its execution. Its all guesswork with really cool flashing meteorological maps and warning flags showing the directional cone of possibilities. One little thing happens; wind speed, shearing, current shifts, water temperature changes, landfall and its back to revise the maps. As landfall approaches the maps are updated quickly. Now is the time to make plans to exit the area - but so many wait because Dean, or any hurricane, just might make a turn at the very last possible moment.

Out in the Gulf are an abundance of oil derricks. The energy market in its logic - never emotion, has reacted to Dean's presence with a decline in oil prices, after fears of the storm's trajectory were semi-retired.

August is the month that has had some of the worst Hurricanes in American History. Hurricane Andrew devastated Florida in 1992. Watching the pictures from Italy was very different in those days. In horror, we all watched the incompetence and death toll skyrocket in the killer wake of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast almost two years ago. Both Andrew & Katrina are now retired names for hurricanes.

Stormtracker.com offers a wide variety of reading material on hurricanes. Hmmm, this has really been a bad week for natural disasters.