I also have to make comment that I find it highly ironic that I'm seeking a wider disucssion here, when on fark if there's a hurricane thread, I'm the one using the NHC as my backbone. I'll caution folks to ignore the people trying to cause panic, and I'll only give my opinion as such and stress that while I might believe X to be true, the NHC has stated Y and you should absolutely listen to them. Of course, those threads generally become question and answer sessions and a few folks helping interpret and explain what the NHC is saying. We'll occasionally speak out when we believe there's an error, but the NHC have been pointing out when they have low-confidence in their forecast with Wilma, and it's cool to be able to help explain to others why it is, and what we believe the NHC would love to say if their favorite model hadn't smoked too much crack.

Anyway, like I said, I'm not entirely certain why it feels so different, just pointing out that it does and speculating upon that (sorry, no model support for my theory there)