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Stuff to make using the site easier ..

I use abbreviations for many things:
Precip = Precipitation
SWS = Special Weather Statements
I will continue to add more to this list as I think of them.
I update the forecasts by 7AM and 7PM each day...more frequently if some weather thing is going on.

I am based in Peterborough, NH, but the main forecasts (for now) are for Nashua, NH and the region. I send out an email every Thursday that covers the upcoming weekend forecast. I also send out advisories when issued by the NWS to this list. You will NEVER get SPAM or emails from anyone else. I don't share my mail list with anyone. If you'd like to be a part of that mailing, send your email address to: Mail List

How I started...

I've been a weather hobbyist all of my life. As a child, I used to stand outside in the rain during thunderstorms just to watch the lightning. Back in the '70s getting weather information was a chore. I remember listening to NWS broadcasts during hurricane season and plotting these on a piece of paper. After moving to New England I finally bought my first real weather station made by Davis Instruments. I began to record daily weather data in a journal. I had a few people, where I work, who knew I was a weather nut, ask me to send them an e-mail on the weekend forecast. So two grew to five then 15, then 40, and now my Thursday weekend mail list reaches over 200+ people. I took some web programming classes in the late '90s and a few years after that RichLefko.com was born. I wanted to share my hobby with anyone who was interested, and I am quite overwhelmed with how many people seem to be interested. I've gotten so many "thank yous" for a variety of reasons..."saved my party", "saved my wedding", "saved my life." It's been fun and rewarding all at the same time.
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Hurricanes 2009

2009 Season Report

Hurricane "Season" runs from June 1 through November 30.

Last updated: Saturday, May 30, 2009 5:43 PM

Let's talk about what the season looks like for the USA....
See the Hurricane Survival Guide

Dr. Willam Gray, Colorado University---Report updated

News story summation

From the Orlando Sentinel

2009 HURRICANE SEASON

2009 hurricane season will be 'normal' season, forecasters say

The 2009 hurricane predictions include up to three major hurricanes.

Anika Myers Palm

Sentinel Staff Writer

5:56 PM EDT, May 21, 2009

Forecasters on Thursday said residents on the East Coast should expect a relatively normal four to seven hurricanes coming out of the Atlantic this storm season but cautioned that it's best to prepare as though there will be more.

The prediction translates to nine to 14 named storms -- and up to three major hurricanes.

Meteorologists at the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said their forecast has a 25-percent margin of error.

An average season includes 11 named storms and six hurricanes, two of them major, according to the climate prediction center's report. The Atlantic Hurricane season begins June 1 and ends November 30.

The center's hurricane season outlook does not project paths for storms; weather patterns near the time storms approach will affect tracking and whether the storms will reach land.

The center's predictions closely mirrors one of the other projections for the 2009 hurricane season. In their annual hurricane season report, Colorado State University researchers Philip Klotzbach and William Gray forecast the season to bring about 12 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes.

One factor that could augur for a less-busy hurricane season would be the development of the El Niño climate system in the eastern Pacific Ocean this summer.

Generally, the development of El Nino means warmer surface ocean temperatures in the Pacific, and correlates with a reduced number of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

"That generally means increasing wind shear in the Atlantic, which is unfavorable" for more hurricanes, because heat in the air is spread out over a larger area and won't contribute to a storm's development, said Don Van Dyke, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Melbourne.

Because storms feed on heat, lower-than-usual Atlantic Ocean surface temperatures also could contribute separately to a reduced number of developing tropical storms and hurricanes.

But even if an average season is on tap, the overall message from weather experts is simple: Prepare, prepare, prepare.

"Prepare for each and every season regardless of the seasonal outlook," said Gerry Bell, the lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at the climate prediction center.

The National Hurricane Center's advice is for Floridians to prepare as though they will be hit by at least one storm, because it takes only one storm to make 2009 a bad hurricane season, according to Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the center.

Forecasters at the climate prediction office will issue an update to their hurricane season outlook in August, just before storm activity peaks in the latter part of the season.