>>> congrats, phil. on the other hand something has ed out of the loop, which probably isn't good.. hope the man is doing alright

HF and everyone else:

That's exactly why I'm "doing" this. I suppose it is a great honor to be so highly (???) thought of to be given this responsibility. I was just extremely concerned about Ed. Hadn't heard a peep out of him for 2 weeks, so I PMed John. He hasn't heard either, at least to my knowledge. Anyhow, one thing led to another and John granted me "moderator" powers. So now I'm going from someone whose posts were frequently EDited to being the one to keep you guys in line.

Since my 6/15 first storm guess didn't pan out...I'll say we have Alex by 7/15. No meterological reasoning there (well, maybe a little), but it seems that all the precursors are just about coming into line...SOI returning to neutral, MJO coming around, cold tongue off of SA, teleconnections, seasonal tendencies, etc. I'm not certain if I can offer up a new forum, but if you guys want "Keeping An Eye on the Gulf" (or whatever this forum is entitled) changed, let Mike know. I think one of the reasons John/Mike have kept the present forum is that there's really nothing out there right now to make a new forum over. Things should start to pick up soon (I hope).

(doing my best ED impersonation) Cheers,

LI Phil