I'd be willing to bank that the NHC, or at least some people there, have heard of all of the popular hurricane tracking sites. There are likely people who peruse this and other forums to gauge public perception and just because they are tropical storm nuts. The high quality of content on this site and others is likely the main drawing card. But, I don't have any real verification of that, so it's just surmising on my part.

I have submitted my comments and hope they will be of some use to them as well.

As an aside, regarding conferences, it'll probably be late 2005 or early 2006 before we see large amounts of research into the tracks and intensities of the 2004 tropical season come out for presentation. Max Mayfield is giving a talk in early January at the AMS conference about the season, while several presentations -- mostly on tornadoes and impacts of the season's storms -- will be given during the remainder of the conference, but all in all not a lot. Just a heads-up.