Weather professionals have long known that the Weather Channel is a joke.  You are now as likely to see something about the current weather on the Weather Channel as you are to see a music video on MTV.

But those are experts.  Generally speaking, they hold the talking heads to a higher standard.  They don't want something that's going to fascinate a lay person.  They want the whole story.  They don't want a synopsis that dumbs things down to the level where someone who barely has enough intellectual firepower to light a flashlight bulb can understand it.

Now, however, the Weather Channel has done something so stupid that it shows everyone what the professionals have known for a long time.  It shows they're a joke.

According to the Weather Channel, the city that is the second most overdue for a hurricane?  San Diego.  Yes, the city that's known for sunny weather and hasn't had a hurricane in over 150 years.  And San Diego, according to the Weather Channel, is more overdue for a hurricane than a couple of cities right in the hurricane zone, Tampa and Savannah.

Does this mean San Diegans should prepare for strong winds and a storm surge that will flood downtown San Diego?  Should we prepare for Petco looking like this?  Will the Gaslamp get its lights broken?

Hardly.

I am no expert on the weather, but I know that hurricanes need warm water to sustain themselves, and that they die when they hit cool water.  It's why you don't see hurricanes on the West Coast. Hurricanes need a minimum water temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit down to a depth of 160 feet.

Water temperatures around San Diego vary with the season, but according to NOAA, at its peak, it hits around 68 degrees.  Even one of those dimbulbs without the intellectual firepower to light more than a flashlight bulb know that 68 is way below 80.

In fact, in his article, the so called expert says the reason California doesn't see hurricanes is because"very cool ocean temperatures over the eastern Pacific off the coast of North America, extending northward from the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. Even though the tropical eastern Pacific to the south and southwest of southern Mexico is routinely a concentrated area of hurricane activity, a rare set of circumstances must be in place for a hurricane to make it all the way up to San Diego."

So, this expert concedes that a very rare set of circumstances needs to be in place for a storm to make it up to San Diego.  You'd have to have water temperatures significantly above their average.  And you'd need a fast moving storm, because it is highly unlikely that water temperatures would be 22 degrees above their average so the storm would lose strength.  Finally, it'd have to be a strong storm, because it would fade quickly once it hits the cool water.

Put it all together, and it sure seems like a farfetched and "rare" scenario, doesn't it?

But a couple of cities that are right in the bullseye for hurricanes -- Savannah and Tampa -- are considered less overdue for one by the Weather Channel.

And this is why the Weather Channel is a joke.  Don't watch it.  If you want weather information, go to the National Weather Service website.