Hurricanes: The fear is now always at the top.

[pepperbear]

Back in the days of Hurricane Isabelle, it was easy to go to the Weather Channel online and click on the "projected path" of any given storm. The projected path would be simply laid out in that traditional "cone of impact" graphic.

Well I guess they caught on that most people weren't watching ads and only needed to know the most pertinent information: "Will the storm hit us and, if so, when?" because the "projected path" menu option seems to be gone and it's all about Hi tech graphics and videos under the guise of a "TROPICS UPDATE." For example, one must now endure a breathless "up to the minute late breaking" video to find out what is happening with two other storms in the Atlantic, Kirk and Leslie.

While dramatic "Storm Catcher Action Music" chugs underneath, the guy proceeds to talk about how powerful the storms are expected to get, like it was whale watching or something.

Only at the end of the report about each storm do we find out that neither is expected to be a threat to the US because of some kind of jet stream that's expected to blow them out into the North Atlantic.

Nope....can't just click a graphic to find that out anymore. Gotta get everyone all good and apprehensive first.

The fear is now always at the top.

[phantom power]

1. You can still get the goods at Weather Underground tropical storm reports:

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/

[slackmaster]

2. You can always go directly to an official government source for tropical weather information

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

It even works OK on mobile devices.