CARIBBEAN TODAY -usw^caribbeantodj..c.. Forecaster closes book on 'very inactive' hurricane season COLORADO, United States - Colorado State University hurricane forecaster William Gray has closed the book on the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season that officially ended on Nov. 30. Because El Nifio has cre- ated strong wind shear over the tropics, "the odds of a storm are very, very small from this point on," said Gray late last month. But the Florida-based United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) said it's possible that the wind shear could relax over the coming weeks, with the waters in the Caribbean still warm enough to support storm for- mation. NHC spokesman Dennis Feltgen warned not to "raid the hurricane kit yet." Feltgen said that the hurricane season looked like it was over in mid- November, but, then, Ida formed in the western Caribbean. He said it wouldn't be unusual for a storm to devel- op in the Caribbean this month. "Tropical cyclones have been recorded in every month outside of the standard June- through-November period," Feltgen said. LOW NUMBERS But Jeff Masters, chief meteorologist of the Weather Underground, said that since 1950, in the years that El Nifio has emerged, only three named storms have developed in the Atlantic after Nov. 15. El Nifio is created by a warm- ing of the equatorial eastern Pacific Ocean. It generates wind shear a change in wind speed or direction and insta- bility in the atmosphere, which acts to disrupt storms before they can build and strengthen. Gray said there have only been nine named storms so far this year, including three hurricanes. He said the aver- age season has 11 named storms, including six hurri- canes. "It was a very inactive season," Gray said. 0 FIGHTING FOR CANCER CURE Sandra Griffiths, second left, Jamaica's consul general ' in Miami, accepts checks on behalf of the Jamaica . Cancer Society from Florida-based Dr. Wentworth Jarrett, right, who spearheaded a series of yoga salu- tations in October which raised over $5,000 to fight breast cancer The funds were given to the JCS and the Vitas Hospice Charitable Fund. Marion Robinson, left, of Inochi Incorporated, and Sandra Jarrett, the doctor's wife, also attended the presentation. U.S gives HIEV/AIDS help commitment to Guyana GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC The United States says it will continue to support the programs that have led to a reduction in the spread of the deadly HIV virus in Guyana, even as it warned that there are likely to be