Dennis The Menace

Well, Dennis is currently pounding the southeast end of Jamaica with eyes for Cuba for tomorrow. Those of us on the Florida peninsula with last years tropical grand slam (Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne) remember the fun and excitement leading up to Charley. A lot of folks were actually looking forward to seeing the power of a hurricane first hand. Myself included.
Can you imagine?
Shame on me.
Now of course, there is a very nervous calm and people are paying close attention to their weather stations.There is more of a wait and see approach as opposed to bedlam.
But if Dennis comes a calling, get in line early. There are still a lot of folks in this area that break out in a clod sweat everytime they hear the words Florida and hurricane in the same sentence.
Some of you just got the chills.
It would be nice is Dennis just sort of blew itself out in the next fifteen seconds or so, but that's just not going to happen. The really scary thing is that Charley's track was eerily similar to Dennis, with most experts predicted a skirting of the west coast of the Florida peninsula before landfall in the "big bend" area.
From what I see, Dennis is forcasted to behave much in the same way, with the main body of the storm staying off shore before barreling into the Pensacola area. That is really dependent on a tropical ridge (whatever that is) maintaining sufficient strength to steer Dennis clear of the peninsula.
The only problem is that the ridge is showing signs of weakening earlier than anticipated and Dennis could start his turn to the north sooner than anticipated.
We'll probably know more tomorrow and if Dennis decides to go to Disney, we'll be ready. We won't like it, but thats the price of living in the sunshine state.