Once Epsilon fades away, assuming we don't have a Zeta lurking somewhere, I'll pick back up with the 2005 Season-in-Review with July's 5 storms. Later in the winter, I'll try to startup with a tutorial series on hurricanes -- structure, forecasting, and the like. For now, I did want to offer some brief reflections and comments on the season that, by and large, has ended -- both from a personal and a scientific standpoint. We'll start with the latter first.

It was quite the odd season. Truth be told, the "very favorable upper level winds" that have been hyped in the media didn't really exist but in localized areas or for short periods of time. July was the only month where those winds really were present across a large portion of the basin -- and as a result, we got 5 storms. The rest of the time, those favorable winds were confined to the Gulf/NW Caribbean. Unfortunately, that's also the region where the most dangerous storms can develop given those favorable wind patterns. Upper level lows and troughs dominated the Atlantic basin this season, effectively squelching our Cape Verde season. But, we also saw at least four systems -- STD 22, Vince, Delta, and Epsilon -- go from extratropical upper level features to tropical/subtropical systems and countless others -- Franklin and Katrina come to mind -- form in the diffluent regions to the NE of these features. We also saw them serve as outflow channels for major hurricanes -- the one that helped evacuate the heat and energy from Rita essentially killed Phillipe -- as noted above with the highly favorable wind regimes in the Gulf.

Next season should be more of a traditional season, probably closer to 2004 than 2005, which is both good and bad in many ways. We are stuck in a period of enhanced activity, probably for another 10-20 years, and I just hope that we gain a lot of understanding and experience with these storms over that time period -- as we will likely need it in the future.

It's been a stressful season for many; I'm sure many of you know people directly affected by one or more of these storms this season. Many members of the community here have been affected as well -- it's been much quieter around these parts ever since Katrina affected the central Gulf Coast and Rita affected parts further west, just to name two storms. For those who track and study these storms for a living, it's been a gold mine in terms of data availability but also a devestating one for the reasons noted above. Most of us enjoy watching a hurricane spin out over open water, not to affect anyone; in fact, many of us enjoy watching those storms become powerful entities, as they can be beautiful to watch. None of us enjoy watching such a storm impacting any land area, however, and are both left in awe at the immense power of such a storm as well as left in a quandry as we know what these storms are likely to do to people's property and people's lives. The political infighting, both in the public's view and behind the scenes within the community, has made things even worse.

Nevertheless, it has been quite the ride. Here's to this being the end of the season and toward a quiet and safe rest of 2005 and start of 2006. Thanks for stopping by.
-Clark