[H] HURRICANE FRANCINE - GULF OF MEXICO

A huge part of the problem is that probably most people do not read the disclaimer in the black rectangle at the top, particularly "Hazardous conditions can occur outside the cone". I understand what you are getting at, though. Many (maybe most?) people look at the cone and presume "all clear" if they are not in it. Again, they miss that the cone represents the "probable path of the storm center but does not show the size of the storm." On the other hand, if they adjusted the graphic to make it more specific, people might not pay attention to it because it isn't simple enough. I do not imply that people in general are not intelligent enough to understand a more complex graphic, but I do believe their length of focus is more limited, thank you cell phones. "I wanna take one look and understand it and move on to something else."