Melanie Morgan

UPDATE FROM THE "I TOLD YOU SO" CATEGORY. My amateur weatherman friend Joe Wierzbicki also gets bragging rights - September 1, 2008 

Even as Gustav made landfall it was not only not a Category 5 hurricane as forecasters had thought might happen at one time.  Nor a Category 4 which the media had hyped would be the true strength of the storm.  It was not even a Category 3 hurricane as they had revised their position (while hoping it would reintensify back into a Category 4).

Gustav was a strong Category 2 but forecasters admit that even this was probably jealous.

Just like the media, they started to believe their own hype and exaggerated the windspeeds a bit.  Could still be a very bad storm, but the forecasters fed the misninformation angle themselves.  Shame on them.

August 31, 2008

I'm not a meterologist, although I occasionally play one on the radio. But I do have friends who are, friends who want to be, and friends who are pilots.

So, based on their collective judgement, I'm going out on a limb and predict that Hurricane Gustav is going to miss New Orleans, ploughing a westerly path, with winds no higher than 70 mph.

From Joe Wierzbicki, also known as Weatherman Wierzbicki around Move America Forward Headquarters - the very latest.

According to the latest update from the National Weather Service, Gustav has stopped it's weakening sequence (it rapidly weakened after interacting with the island nation of Cuba) and may begin on a brief stage of re-intensification.