Today is the first day of the 2004 Atlantic Hurricane season. The season runs from Today (June 1st) until November 30th. Although storms can form anytime during the season (and very rarely outside the season) most storms tend to form in August, September, and October.

In June storm formation is not the norm, but when they do, usually storms will form in the Western Caribbean or in the Gulf, and tend not to be on the high end.

We'll be watching here, as we expect a slightly higher than average season this year. This is the 9th year that this site has been running, and we hope to improve it some during this season. With new looks and more data available. As it still remains a hobby site for us, things probably will progress slowly. All the automated functionality from previous years remains.

As we open, there isn't much to write home about regarding activity. For once I don't expect a named storm until July this year. We will see.

We'll keep an eye out.

NRL Monterey Marine Meteorology Division Forecast Track of Active Systems (Good Forecast Track Graphic and Satellite Photos)

For a seasonal Forecast Update, see the Storm Forum.

Follow worldwide SST evolution here:

Global SST Animation

NASA GHCC Interactive Satellite images at:

North Atlantic Visible (Daytime Only), Infrared, Water Vapor

Some forecast models:
NGM, AVN, MRF, ETA ECMWF

DoD Weather Models (NOGAPS, AVN, MRF)
AVN, ECMWF, GFDL, MM5, NOGAPS, UKMET

Multi-model plots from WREL

Other commentary at Mike Anderson's East Coast Tropical Weather Center, Robert Lightbown/Crown Weather Tropical Update Accuweather's Joe Bastardi (now subcriber only unfortunately), Cyclomax (Rich B.), Hurricane City , mpittweather , Tropical Weather Watchers.Com (JasonM) Gary Gray's Millennium Weather, Barometer Bob's Hurricane Hollow, Snonut,
Even more on the links page.
- [mike@flhurricane.com]

(minor correction)