MIAMI, FL-- The "skinny black line," long a staple of forecasts showing a hurricane's projected path, could be a casualty of the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season.
While urging preparedness on the first day of the season the director of the nation's hurricane center also said he's on a subtle crusade against the line, which forecasters have long called misleading. Bill Read said Monday that this year people who go to the hurricane center's Web site to track an approaching storm will be met with a graphic that shows only the cone representing the projected path of its center.
Read said that over the last year he realized just how many people mistakenly use the line to determine how they'll respond to the storm -- like whether to evacuate or make other preparations.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
