Alex Ferguson writes:

Here at Reinsurance Towers, we like to talk about the hurricane season as much as the next person.

For the months of June, July, August and September, we -- like the rest of the reinsurance market, it seems - go from our normal jobs to amateur metereologists. And we wouldn't want it any other way.

"You talking about Gustav? That's soooooo earlier this week," says this writer, snootily namedropping about Hurricane Hanna, Tropical Storm Ike, and a Tropical Depression "Ten" which has just formed off the coast of Africa.

But there are some great ways you can get ahead of the game:

The National Hurricane Center: Does what it says on the tin. The maps on the front page are so easy to use that even a caveman would understand what's going on. They also update everything once an hour, making it addictive reading.

Tropical Storm Risk Priding itself on being the "leading" forecaster of risks from tropical storms worldwide, TSR - as its known by wannabe metereologists like us who are "in the know", we can actually see where a hurricane's headed via a map. Pretty cool huh? Well, it's great for our office. For the guys in the Bahamas as Hanna approaches, not so much.

My Fox Hurricane Now it's got messageboards, the wonderful people at Fox have managed to turn hurricane-chasing into a specetator sport. With all the smells, bells and weather maps you could want - as well as a messageboard just in case you want to boast about how much you won because the eye of the storm didn't pass over New Orleans - this is for the premier storm lover.

Hope this helps.