Jan 2, 2008 9:34 am US/Eastern
Former NHC Director Questions Storm Classification
For The Latest Weather Forecasts Click Here
HOUSTON (CBS4) ―
Neil Frank, who once headed the National Hurricane Center from 1974 to 1987, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Wednesday that he believed some storms in 2007 were so weak that they should not have been given a tropical storm status.
Frank, who is a meteorologist at the CBS television affiliate in Houston, said that six of the 15 named storms from last year's hurricane season should not have been ranked.
He added that the inflation in the number of named storms has been going on for the past decade. If scientists took out what he considered unworthy systems from the annual lists of named storms, then it would appear that tropical weather patterns these days aren't more intense than the past.
Contrary to that suggestion, some scientists contend that global warming has produced more active hurricane seasons.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
