The Information Sewer (Tropics 26 Sept 2023)

TLDR: nothing to worry about at the moment. Philippe is taking the more southward track, but that track is into unfavorable conditions, and is forecast to weaken and dissipate. The disturbance (AL91) should become at least a depression, too early to tell which way it will go, but it’s a week away from even beginning to be being a threat.

That really should be enough, but with headlines like “US Weather warning: Trio of terrifying storms prompts fresh alert for East Coast of America” people are nervous. And if that’s not bad enough going on to say “But a fourth storm brewing in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico is the one experts say could unleash weather hell on the US this week.” Wow – that article was sent to me by a reader, apparently pushed on Microsoft Start’s news feed. The article was apparently referring to the disturbance (not even an invest area) that NHC only had at the highest a 10% chance, and by the time that article was published NHC had removed it from the forecast page with a “zero percent chance of development.” That’s supposed to “unleash weather hell” ???

Microsoft’s Start news feed is supposed to be a “premium,” “curated,” feed from “reliable publishers.” Yeah, I call BS on that one. For all the talk about “misinformation” and “propaganda” on specific topics, the simple fact is across virtually every issue, be it political corruption, economics, elections, foreign policy, energy issues, and many others, the US public is grossly misinformed. The way weather is covered is a microcosm of this information sewer. Our society just can’t function with this level of inflammatory rhetoric designed to engage and enrage for commercial and political manipulation.

Don’t fall for it.