Hurricane season is once again upon us. Last year's hurricane season was 25% more active than normal and for the first time since the 04’ - 05’ hurricane seasons, Florida was impacted by a major hurricane in back to back years.
We now have this year’s hurricane season predictions. According to Colorado State University, we'll have 13 named storms, NOAA says 12 and the Weather Channel is predicting 14. Of those storms CSU says 5 will become hurricanes, NOAA says 6 and the Weather Channel is at 6. Now, if we put them all together we average 13 named storms and six hurricanes. Were that to happen we’d have a slightly above average hurricane season. As we enter the “official” start of hurricane season, we’ve already had our first named storm for the fifth consecutive year.
Something to keep in mind is that June storms generally form closer to the US and are more likely to make landfall. Historically, just 3% of all hurricanes form in June and 7% of all landfalls in the US have occurred during the month. Here's the good news, 2% of the storms that form occur prior to hurricane season, so technically we're 2% of the way through hurricane season as it begins. We just have 98% to go!
Photo by: NOAA via Getty Images