Hurricane Frances' weakening surprises forecasters.
Who took the sting out of a killer hurricane?

It was reported to me by the National Hurricane Center that at 11pm edt something strange started to happen to Frances. (See bulliten 37 below.) What forecasters know now is that Frances began weakening Friday around 11pm edt when it was over the western Bahamas. A meteorologist from the National Hurricane Center reported southwesterly winds from the Caribbean swept into its left side, effectively choking off the hurricane and causing its left half to diminish and its eye to disintegrate, said meteorologist Jim Lushine.He compared the hurricane to an engine that needs both fuel and exhaust. Big storms feed on water and blow their expended energy out the top of the system. When those upper level southwesterly winds rolled in, they formed a wind shear that cut off the storm's exhaust system and caused the engine to sputter, like a potato plugged in a car's tailpipe."In this case the exhaust actually got blocked off," Lushine said. "There wasn't enough air circulating from the top." Along with the southwesterlies, a patch of dry air collided with the storm. Without the moisture needed as fuel, that dry air also caused the system to start falling apart, clogging its fuel line as it were.Another reason the mammoth storm lost some of its punch is the length of time it pounded the Bahamas. As it passed through the islands, the storm grew weaker and less organized, though it was more spread out. The more the storm passes over land, the less chance it has to strengthen, said Herb Saffir, a Coral Gables, Fla., structural engineer who helped develop the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane scale, which rates storms based on how much damage they can inflict."Generally when a storm like that is sitting in one place it loses its intensity, and then going over land further weakens it," he said. For forecasters, their hands are basically tied when it comes to these meteorological mechanics."We didn't see the wind shear coming on, we didn't see the dry air," Lushine said. "Our most difficult forecast task is to predict changes in intensity."

It was as if the Lord heard someone's prayers and plugged up the thing. All the moisture and strength and power was just taken out of this storm. It was as if it just stalled and became confused. The longer it stalled in one place, the quicker it lost power.

Here is what we know. A prayer meeting started at 8:00pm Pdt or 11:00pm edt, and something wonderful happened. If you will look at the following Hurricane Advisories, you will see the effect that prayer had on the storm.