[tw]

Originally Posted by OnyxCougar

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2484.htm (NOAA Hurricane Outlook)

The irony of the fourth and fifth pictures in that URL - Katrina neither formed nor passed through that black box called the "hurricane development region". What has made hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico so severe is abnormal warning throughout in the northern Gulf. The URL (dated 2 Aug 2005) does not even note that area as having unusually high water temperatures.