There isn't any action in the tropics, but look at the temps

[Horse with no Name]

This doesn't look good at all.
It is only April and a great deal of the tropics temperatures--especially coming into the Gulf, are in the 80's and 90's. I have a feeling that the Hurricane season this year will wreak some major havoc in the Gulf states.

[babylonsister]

1. Those pics don't scare me;

I'm already scared, seriously. It's going to be a wicked summer, and I understand it's been really wicked in the midwest w/tornadoes this year.

[gordianot]

2. True enough get ready for mass destruction without weapons.

[SnowGoose]

3. Without historical context, it's hard to draw conclusions.

I don't know what the normal range of water temperatures is this time of year, but I thought I read here that the temperatures were slightly lower than this same time last year.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

[Horse with no Name]

5. This might help

Oceanic Conditions

The tropical oceans, including the equatorial and southern Indian Ocean, the western and central equatorial Pacific Ocean, and the tropical North Atlantic Ocean, were warmer than average in March, with little or no change from the previous month. See the ENSO Quick Look and the IRI ENSO Update for more information. The extratropical oceans, around 30°S and 30°N, cooled slightly compared to the previous month. In the North Atlantic a tripole structure prevailed, with cool subtropics sandwiched between warm tropics and high latitudes, a pattern typically associated with the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation.

Monthly Sea Surface Temperature Difference from the 1971-2000 mean, with data from the Environmental Modeling Center, NCEP/NOAA.

http://iri.columbia.edu/climate/cid/Apr2005/summary.html

This is a great reference as well:
http://www.caribwx.com/cyclone.html

[SnowGoose]

6. Thanks for the link!

Very intersting stuff.

[misanthrope]

4. Oh, believe me...

...everyone here on the Gulf is keeping an eye on it. Our weather conditions for winter and spring of '06 have been exactly like the previous two years. We are presently setting heat records that are only a couple of years' old. We're certainly whistling past the graveyard. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised to see the first storms start early again, like late June/early July.

Oddly enough, Mobile, Alabama--normally one of the wettest cities in the nation--is experiencing a drought. We've had no substantial rainfall since Katrina came ashore at the end of last summer. Showers? A couple, but nothing that would add up to much. The creek behind our house, normally alive with turtles, raccoons and waterfowl, has been completely dry for months now.