“Don’t focus on the skinny line.”

That’s the word from Max Mayfield, Director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. And now that the 2005 hurricane season has gotten off to a record fast start, his admonition is especially relevant.
Dr. Mayfield is referring to the tendency of the public to focus its attention on the narrow line defining the predicted movement of a hurricane core rather than the “cone” of possible movement of the storm system.
Mayfield also emphasizes that tropical storms and hurricanes are not discrete points on a map. Rather, they are sprawling weather systems that produce dangerous and damaging weather conditions in a belt sometimes 300 miles on either side of the center path.
A hurricane’s arsenal of potentially deadly weapons includes high winds, coastal storm surge, isolated tornadoes and inland river and flash flooding.