Meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center are keeping an eye on an ominous brewing of clouds in the western edge of the Gulf Of Mexico - just north of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Those of you living near the coast in Mexico and South Texas can relax. The eggheads at the NHC are projecting less than a 30% chance of this cloud system developing any tropical cyclone activity within the next fourty-eight hours. For now, it looks like some Mexicans are going to get some nice showers in this summer heat.

As a precaution, those of you local to this system, keep your radios and televisions tuned to catch any alerts just in case this weather system gets any larger or more organized.

Even though the official start of the 2009 Hurricane Season is still a few days away, it looks like the Atlantic just had to jump the gun.

We now have a first tropical depression.  These depressions, if they get organized, have the potential to turn into tropical storms and hurricanes when the conditions are right.

The National Hurricane Center gives this first depression of the season and incredible small chance of developing any further. Even if it did, it is not predicted to make landfall anywhere in North America. Good news for us land lubbers, but not so good news for anybody who works on any patch of sea within the 'cone of uncertainty'. You sailors better have your rain gear ready.

If you live in South Florida or the Gulf South, then you are aware of the significance of the dates June 1st and November 30th. Those happen to be the dates the mark the official beginning and end of hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean.

Being just over halfway through the month of May and I a have compiled my list of hurricane supplies. It's something I learned to do over twenty years ago when I started living so near the Gulf of Mexico in Lousisiana. In the years since I became a real procrastenator about gathering my supplies. I usually waited until a storm was less than forty eight hours from landfall before I got all the batteries, water, non-perishable foods, first aid kits, candles, gasoline, etc.

On this issue, I no longer have the luxury of being a slacker until the last minute. Being a father - I now think about the well being of my two children and their mother.

When Hurricane Wilma knocked all of here in Broward County FL back to the stone age for two weeks, it was my wake up call. We made it through alright - but it was far from easy. As a father I won't be letting that happen again.

So this week I will be walking into the local wholesale club and pushing out carts of supplies. Sure, it will cost me a few bucks to bring all this home and store it in the closet. But, I sure don't want to pay the price for not being prepared again.

If you live in Florida or within a hundred miles of water near the Gulf South, then you really might want to making sure you have the following list of items and enough of them to last for two weeks if needed.