NOAA has sent a flight of planes into the GOM to take measurements out over the open waters.  Apparently, they are concerned that something big is up and they want as much data as possible for the next computer model runs.  This procedure is usually used to help forecast hurricanes.  Interesting.

The Pacific Ocean and much of Canada, also do not have as much data sampling as the forecasters would like.  Sparse data increases forecasting errors by the computer models.