Well, with Hurricane Season 2006 already off to a frisky start with Alberto looming in the Gulf and teetering on hurricane strength...and our friends in Florida getting ready to change their state nickname from the Sunshine State to the Plywood State ( hugs and prayers to you guys on the Gulf Coast )...just wondering if anyone would like to predict the season with me? Which names to you think will be the Katrinas, Hugos and Andrews? I mean, there's nothing that can be done to stop them, so we might as well have fun with them. Although, if I'd lived on the Gulf Coast last fall, I think a move to Idaho would have been a good idea this year. Here is a list of the names to be used in the 2006 Season:

Alberto
Beryl
Chris
Debby
Ernesto
Florence
Gordon
Helene
Isaac
Joyce
Kirk
Leslie
Michael
Nadine
Oscar
Patty
Rafael
Sandy
Tony
Valerie
William
and don't forget Alpha, Beta and all rest of the Greek Alphabet they had to use last year when they ran out of names. What a year!!

I'm going with Debby, Florence and Helena for starters. Hurricane Helena just sounds like it would command attention to me. What do you guys think will be the big names? I was suprised to see Gordon again...didn't Hurricane Gordon slap around the gulf coast a few years back? I thought they'd have retired the name.

Where do they come up with these names??

Well, I know it's not a hurricane, but I would think a tropical storm would still be something to command attention. It's so early in the season for them, too. I hope it's not a sign that it's going to be another horrendous year on the southern coasts. My parents lost their place in Charley a couple years ago. Although I do have an evil ex-mother-in-law in Naples ....but I really wouldn't wish that on anybody.

The barometric pressure on Alberto has gone down a couple, which means intesification, so I hope it comes on land all together quickly so it loses it's fuel source!

I'm a weather geek, can you tell? I like watching it from afar, anyway. And I love thunderstorms, but that's because I live in the northeast where they're pretty whimpy compared to, say, Texas. If I had to live through one of those super cells, I think I'd move deep into Canada

Anyone else have any hurricane stories for us?

I moved to the east coast of Florida in August of 2004--right after Hurricane Charlie and before Hurricane Frances and Jeanne. Talk about baptism under fire! We were very fortunate and did not sustain much damage.

Here's hoping for a less active season!

I'm living in the Caribbean right now, and we have been getting rains from Alberto all day. It's amazing how strong these storms are. I can't imagine being in the middle of it, and I hope we are all lucky this year.

Just a thought...I thought that they only used the names for hurricanes/tropical storms once. Once it has been used I thought they retired it???? can anyone help me on that???

They only retire them if they had devestating effects...like Katrina was retired last year and a few others. Charley, Frances and the other one that was bad the year before were retired. The names go on, I think, a six year rotation. Names used this year were used six years ago.

Thanks. I knew there was something I was missing. Most of the "experts" are saying that this year will be pretty bad, but I am praying that it does not get as bad a last year.