At the Pumps

#31

Price's are about to skyrocket!

Strong hurricanes to hit U.S. Gulf in 07: AccuWeather

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Gulf Coast, which is still rebuilding almost two years after Hurricane Katrina, faces a renewed threat of powerful storms this year, private forecaster AccuWeather said on Tuesday.

After a quiet hurricane season last year, Florida and other Gulf Coast states likely will be hit with fewer storms than during the active 2005 season, which spawned the massive hurricanes Katrina and Rita, AccuWeather said.

But the storms forecast for the region will pack a punch.

"We will not get anywhere near the amount of storms that we did in 2005, but the intensity of the storms we do get will be of major concern," Joe Bastardi, chief hurricane forecaster for AccuWeather.com, said in a statement.

British forecasting group Tropical Storm Risk this month also predicted an active storm season. It forecast four "intense" hurricanes during the 2007 season, which runs from June through November.

The predictions spell trouble for areas still recuperating from a chain of hurricanes that slammed the Gulf Coast in 2005.

"The entire region -- including New Orleans and other areas that are still rebuilding after Katrina -- is susceptible to storms," Bastardi said.

Katrina killed about 1,500 people along the Gulf Coast in 2005, displaced tens of thousands more and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Bastardi also said that storms forecast to hit this year could once again disrupt oil and natural gas operations along the Gulf Coast, driving up energy prices for consumers.

"This year's stronger storms are likely to be the kind of disruption that will be felt in wallets and pocketbooks," he said.

U.S. gasoline prices reached a record high of $3.057 per gallon after Katrina, which caused oil refineries to shut down and companies to evacuate workers from oil and gas producing rigs in the Gulf.

After Hurricane Rita hit the region a month after Katrina, as much as 14 percent of U.S. refinery capacity was shut and about 80 percent of crude oil and 66 percent of natural gas production were down for months.

Bastardi also predicted the U.S. Northeast would likely be a target for strong storms for the next 10 years.

"Last year, the Northeast may have dodged a bullet but, unfortunately, you can only be lucky for so long. We are in a pattern similar to that of the late 1930s through the 1940s, when the Northeast was hit by two major storms," he said.

The relative calm of last year's hurricane season, which forecasters had mistakenly predicted would be busy, came on the heels of a record 28 storms and 15 hurricanes in 2005 and only a slightly less furious season in 2004.

Bastardi said that, despite the milder 2006 season, the trend was toward strong hurricanes and tropical storms.

"We are living in a time of climatic hardship," Bastardi said. "We're in a cycle where weather extremes are more the norm and not the exception."

#32

They haven't been too accurate in general on hurricane predictions recently. I think that it real is a chaotic event with no easy predictability.

And we're paying about $2.49 / gallon in Houston, which is maybe $.70 -$.80 per liter.

#33

It doesn't matter, they'll use the information to run up the price like they did during the elections.

#34

'Very active' hurricane season predicted

April 3, 2007

DENVER, Colorado (AP) -- The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season should be "very active," with nine hurricanes and a good chance that at least one major hurricane will hit the U.S. coast, a top researcher said Tuesday.

Forecaster William Gray said he expects a total of 17 named storms this year, five of them major hurricanes with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater.

The probability of a major hurricane making landfall on the U.S. coast this year: 74 percent, compared with the average of 52 percent over the past century, he said.

Last year, Gray's forecast and government forecasts were higher than what the Atlantic hurricane season produced.

There were 10 named Atlantic storms in 2006 and five hurricanes, two of them major, in what was considered a "near normal" season.

None of those hurricanes hit the U.S. Atlantic coast -- only the 11th time that has occurred since 1945. The National Hurricane Center in Miami originally reported nine storms, but upgraded one storm after a postseason review.

Gray's research team at Colorado State University said an unexpected late El Ni±o contributed to the calmer season last year. El Ni±o -- a warming in the Pacific Ocean -- has far-reaching effects that include changing wind patterns in the eastern Atlantic, which can disrupt the formation of hurricanes there.

A weak to moderate El Ni±o occurred in December and January but dissipated rapidly, said Phil Klotzbach, a member of Gray's team.

"Conditions this year are likely to be more conducive to hurricanes," Klotzbach said Tuesday. In the absence of El Ni±o, "winds aren't tearing the storm systems apart."

The team's forecasts are based on global oceanic and atmospheric conditions.

Klotzbach advised coastal residents along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico to have hurricane plans and preparedness kits in place, but he added, "You can't let the possibility of a hurricane coming ruin your summer."

The Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, averages 9.6 named storms, 5.9 hurricanes and 2.3 intense hurricanes per year.

The devastating 2005 season set a record with 28 named storms, 15 of them hurricanes. Four of those hurricanes hit the U.S. coast, the worst among them Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and leveled parts of the Gulf Coast region.

Gray has spent more than 40 years in tropical weather research. He heads the Tropical Meteorology Project at Colorado State.

Federal government forecasters plan to release their prediction in late May.

#35

I think the most recent price I saw was $1.18/litre

#36

Fuck!!!! Dont rebuild Nawlins (as fun as it was when I visited-- its in a goddamn hole underwater --- (can I post that??) $3.00 /gal in the SoCal area per gallon

#37

2.70 today

#38

$2.79

#39

1.04 (Canadian dollars per litre) = 3.49 U.S. dollars per US gallon

(via Google.)

#40

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