Howard Camping: Forecaster

New Bern, NC
35 05.91 N 077 01.95 W

Look at this picture I downloaded from sailflow.com this afternoon.

Note especially the ugly dark band that fills the Abemarle Sound, Alligator and Pasquotank Rivers. That color means gale force winds 35-40 knots. The picture was supposed to give the forecast for 1800 today and I captured the picture at 1730.  Cruisers like ourselves have all been regaled with horror stories of how bad Abemarle Sound can be in a gale, so that really got my attention.

But there is something strange.  The shape of the gale seems to exactly fit the shores of the waters.   Yet those waters are too small to support their own micro climate.  Something looked fishy.

I checked current wind observations on the Abemarle.  They said winds 17 knots.  I checked the text version of the marine forecast for the Abemarle.  It said 10-15 knots.   The corroborating evidence for the picture just wasn't there.  I believe that the forecast shown in the picture was somehow horribly wrong.

What the dickens was going on?  I don't know.  I can speculate that Reverend Howard Camping has a new job as a forecaster for sailflow.com after losing his job over the End Of Days fiasco last Friday. :)