So: Dolly, which is now lashing southern Texas as a borderline Category 1/Category 2 storm, wasn't the big one. It wasn't a Katrina or a Rita--a storm capable of shutting down all Gulf oil production.
On the other hand, if you're the type to worry then it's not irrelevant that we're staring down what could be a very bad hurricane season--and one Gulf storm in the wrong place could lead to a dramatic gas price spike. Given the vulnerability of our economy right now, that's not something we could easily handle.
My latest Science Progress column, entitled "The Perfect Storm," addresses this topic--just one more way of illustrating how vulnerable we are because of our dependence on oil.
More like this
This is a huge hurricane/typhoon heading quickly, and imminently, towards taiwan.
The storm itself is roughly as wide as the island nation is long, so very little will be left unaffected.
The big, current, story in the Atlantic is, of course, hurrican/tropical storm (there is some confusion on the status of the storm over the last 12 hours) Ingrid. Regardless of how it is classified, Ingrid is going to cause major flooding in Mexico.
Update:
The new forecast track of Neoguri is shown above as well as the location of two nuclear power plants.
[Tracks of storms in the Northwest Pacific basin, 2007.]