Peak Hurricane Season Is Here

Usually, you don’t need a reminder. This year, you may have forgotten without one. And that’s obviously a good thing. Historically, the last two weeks of August and the first two weeks of September represent the peak of activity which occurs during hurricane season – with the absolute peak of activity occurring on September 10th. While it’s possible all heck could break loose before then – based on the National Hurricane Center’s map we know that’s not the case for at least the next five days. To put our good fortune in perspective this year, we’ve entered the peak of the season having only had a total of three tropical storms (one of which was questionable at best) and no hurricanes to date. How unusual is this? Last year we’d already had eight named storms, three of which were hurricanes, one of which was major. Two years ago, we were already ten storms in. What was the last year we’d arrived this late in the season with three or fewer named storms and no hurricanes? 2002. Yep, it’s been 20 years since we had such a benign start to hurricane season. That’s of course quite the contrast to the aggressive preseason forecasts by all who issue them in the meteorological realm. Just about anything can happen from here, but what’s clear is that all heck would have to break loose for any of those preseason projections to prove accurate. And speaking of accuracy, should this hurricane season continue to pace along with what happened 20 years ago – we'd have 12 named storms. A number that’s lower than the lowest possible end of the range of any of the preseason projections. So yeah, peak hurricane season is here. As of now, the activity thankfully isn’t.