Hurricane season
After suffering two massive floods within two months, one in mid April and the second just this last week, Southeast Texas woke up this morning, rolled over and looked at the calendar and realized it was June 1. The first day of hurricane season. Whoop te do!
But first we have to contend with more everyday rainstorms that are on the way and may be settling over us for the next five days or so. More flooding is forecast. With all this going on, how can we get worked up about hurricane season?
Still, we need to be paying attention because this might prove to be an interesting and active season.
The last big storm to hit us was Hurricane Ike in 2008. It was hugely destructive. Looking around the neighborhoods after the passage of that storm, it was hard to believe that things could ever be put right again, but eight years later, it is hard to distinguish signs that it happened. Will this be the year that our hiatus between storms ends?
We were protected last year by a very strong El Niño, but El Niño is now rapidly weakening and meteorologists say we may be heading straight into a La Niña pattern which will be much more favorable for the formation of Atlantic hurricanes.
Perhaps it is a harbinger of an active season that there has already been one hurricane this year. Hurricane Alex hit the Azores in January, an almost unprecedented month for Atlantic hurricanes. A second storm named Bonnie never reached hurricane status but the tropical storm hit over the Memorial Day weekend bringing rip currents and rain along the East Coast.
But first we have to contend with more everyday rainstorms that are on the way and may be settling over us for the next five days or so. More flooding is forecast. With all this going on, how can we get worked up about hurricane season?
Still, we need to be paying attention because this might prove to be an interesting and active season.
The last big storm to hit us was Hurricane Ike in 2008. It was hugely destructive. Looking around the neighborhoods after the passage of that storm, it was hard to believe that things could ever be put right again, but eight years later, it is hard to distinguish signs that it happened. Will this be the year that our hiatus between storms ends?
We were protected last year by a very strong El Niño, but El Niño is now rapidly weakening and meteorologists say we may be heading straight into a La Niña pattern which will be much more favorable for the formation of Atlantic hurricanes.
Perhaps it is a harbinger of an active season that there has already been one hurricane this year. Hurricane Alex hit the Azores in January, an almost unprecedented month for Atlantic hurricanes. A second storm named Bonnie never reached hurricane status but the tropical storm hit over the Memorial Day weekend bringing rip currents and rain along the East Coast.
We've been lucky these last few years, but at some point our luck will run out and this may be that year, so if you live along the East or Gulf Coast, it is important to be prepared, not complacent. Remember our mantra: Hide from the wind, run from the water. The water will kill you.
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