I was checking out the new sat loops just yesterday evening - nice huh. I hadn't seen the "Rainbow" colorway before and maybe it's from coming of age in the late 60s / early 70s but I have to admit to being a little partial to it (attached an image of the impressive closed low that is currently parked over Lake Michigan and the assoc trough, bringing 40-degree rainy weather all day to MSP, but I didn't mind it as much after seeing it on the Rainbow IR).

But I couldn't get the eastpac tropical ones to work yesterday ( http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/trop-epac.html ). They are working now, but too far west for that convection around 95-100W.

That convection moved north since yesterday evening when it was, I think, south of 5N, and just part of the ITCZ. It is mentioned in the aft eastpac TWD:

"A 1008 MB SURFACE LOW MOVING W ABOUT 10-15 KT IS ANALYZED NEAR 8N97W. SCATTERED STRONG CONVECTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE LOW IS NOTED FROM 5N-11N BETWEEN 97W-100W. "

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Also -- in a news article from the Daytona Beach News Journal on the Florida Governor's Hurricane Conference which occured this week:

The one lesson learned after every land-falling hurricane, National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield said, is that people who have disaster plans and execute them fare much better.

Mayfield said he could think of "no greater tribute" to Katrina victims than having people prepared this year.

That includes making sure officials don't hesitate to call evacuations if necessary, he said.

"Some people in Louisiana played Russian roulette," he said. "The stakes are too high to not do the right thing and call for evacuations in the hurricane area."

I wondered if that was regarding Nagin's failure to issue the mandatory evac until only hours before winds picked up in NOLA on Sunday.

And this was nice to read (it was true about FL helping out -- FEMA didn't show up in Jackson County for 10 days, and FL teams were there to help with S&R as soon as the roads could be cleared to get in).

Bush choked up for several seconds while talking about the gratitude of Mississippi officials for all the assistance received from Florida counties and cities last year.

"It was an unusual and incredible response," Bush said. "They said: 'It was like the cavalry coming in. They actually saved our lives.' "