Hurricane Hunting - Microsoft Style

Mother Nature beware. Bill Gates is after you. According to news reports, the master of Microsoft is looking to put a hurting on hurricanes and tropical storms. He, along with a list of other inventors/contributors, submitted applications to the U.S. patent office that offer a way to weaken or break up the monster storms. For those who live and work in a hurricane-vulnerable state like Florida, this is interesting news.

In short: It sounds like the plan would consist of fleets of barges to ride out ahead of the storm and chill the sea temperatures by dumping and stirring up cold water in the storm's path thus depleting it of its main fuel source.

Hmmm. I understand the reasoning behind the effort and applaud the creativity, but but you have to wonder about some of the effects this kind of climate control would have.

Some of the questions that come to mind:

• By eliminating these storms, does that mean Florida's rainy season should change its name to the drier muggy season?
  
• How much lead time will these barges have on the storms? Storms can develop and diminish pretty quickly; and I wouldn't necessarily put the words "fast" and "barge" in the same sentence.
  
• How will fish and other marine life react to all this cold water being dumped into the warm currents?
  
• When it comes to really large storms like Andrew, Katrina, and Ike, how much water displacement are we talking about?
  
• Can this really work?

If this concept has any legs whatsoever, these questions, along with the multitudes of others, will be addressed in time. This is not the first time an idea has been pitched to disrupt hurricanes, and I'm sure this won't be the last. Of course, none of those ideas were powered by Microsoft. So, watch out sun. You might be next.

In the meantime, we'll watch the tropics this hurricane season and -- like always -- rely on preparation and good judgement to deal if disaster does indeed make a threat.