While this is generally a valid point, I would note that there are only eight other people in my office, and they all know what I put expressly at the top of my post here...I am a complete and total amateur. The other point I want to make about relying on the NHC, while it is good advice, is that in practice people rely on TV mets and --- unfortunately --- the hype that the stations put on to promote their mets. The average viewer is unable to distinguish between a qualified met quoting the NHC, an anchorperson teasing the weather before a commercial with wildly oversimplified and sometimes inaccurate info, and an announcer in the commercial break between soaps hyping that station's coverage. Moreover, the average person with no or minimal computer literacy may have no idea how to cut out the middleman and go directly to the NHC for the best advice. Finally, I work in a government office that is getting regular e-mail updates from our agency's emergency managers with verbatim reports from NHC. I hope that reassures your concern about misleading people, because it doesn't happen with me, although I wish I could say the same for the news media coverage that most people do rely on (and another reason to salute the Mayfield news conferences as a way to get directly to the people, although questions like how concerned he is for the wildlife in the Everglades just reinforces my above point about the media).