Hurricane Intensity big challenge for forecasters

CHARLESTON (AP) -- The new director of the National Hurricane Center says while forecasters have improved predictions about a storm's path, they now have to develop better forecasts about a storm's strength.

Bill Read told a conference in Charleston today that forecasters are better are diagnosing a storm's intensity, but he says rapid changes in a storm are the big challenge.

On average, 48-hour hurricane track forecasts have improved about 3.5 percent each year since 1985. But a Commerce Department official says intensity forecasts have improved only about 0.8
percent per year. Mary Glackin says there's room for improvement, but officials have decided to focus on intensity forecasts.

Glackin says improving those forecasts will also allow for more accurate forecasts of deadly storm surge when a hurricane blows ashore.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)