At noon, WFTV, WKMG promote their Fay projections

The National Hurricane Center tells us where storms are headed, but so do local stations.

At noon Monday, WKMG-Channel 6 and WFTV-Channel 9 were stressing how they saw the path of Tropical Storm Fay. And they weren't shy about promoting their efforts.

There's a lesson here: It's good to look around to see how differently the stations are doing things.

At WFTV, meteorologist Brian Shields noted that the ABC affiliate had issued its own storm track at 4:30 a.m. "We switched the track here, and it's still on track according to us," Shields said. "The National Hurricane Center [is] coming a little bit more in line with what we've been thinking through the morning hours."

Shields added, "We think our thinking has been right."

At noon, both lines -- WFTV's and the revised one from the hurricane center -- showed Fay hitting Central Florida with strong winds starting late Tuesday and continuing through Wednesday.

On WKMG, chief meteorologist Tom Sorrells offered a forecast track from his Viper radar. It was east of the hurricane center's forecast and predicted that Fay would move toward Melbourne late Tuesday.

"There's the official path, there's the Vipir Local 6 forecast path," Sorrells said, stressing the difference.

WKMG meteorologist Eric Wilson added that the winds would turn bad for Polk and Osceola counties Tuesday night.