{"id":28383,"date":"2013-05-31T09:19:20","date_gmt":"2013-05-31T14:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=28383"},"modified":"2013-05-31T09:19:22","modified_gmt":"2013-05-31T14:19:22","slug":"all-signs-point-to-strong-hurricane-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/05\/31\/all-signs-point-to-strong-hurricane-season\/","title":{"rendered":"All Signs Point to Strong Hurricane Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_28388\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/05\/31\/all-signs-point-to-strong-hurricane-season\/idl-tiff-file\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-28388\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-28388\" title=\"IDL TIFF file\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/05\/sandy_goe_2012302_1745_lrg-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/05\/sandy_goe_2012302_1745_lrg-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/05\/sandy_goe_2012302_1745_lrg-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2013\/05\/sandy_goe_2012302_1745_lrg.jpg 1342w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by NOAA<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hurricane Sandy strikes the East Coast on October 28, 2012. Forecasters are predicting an active hurricane season this year.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Tomorrow marks the beginning of the six-month Atlantic hurricane season, and forecasters think it might be a doozy.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.noaa.gov\/\">The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/a>\u00a0(NOAA) predicts this coming season will produce more than 13 named storms. An average season produces 12, but the amount of hurricanes and major hurricanes is predicted to be above average as well.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Gerry Bell, lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA says this summer will have at least two of the three main factors that lead meteorologists to predict a strong season.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/10\/28\/the-science-behind-hurricane-sandy-climate-change-or-freak-storm\/\">The Science Behind Hurricane Sandy: Climate Change or Freak Storm?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/10\/30\/three-ways-climate-change-made-hurricane-sandy-worse\/\">3 Ways Climate Change Made Hurricane Sandy Worse<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/01\/08\/how-climate-change-will-impact-texas\/\">How Climate Change Will Impact Texas<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/04\/11\/hurricanes-may-be-needed-to-help-pull-texas-out-of-drought\/\">Hurricanes May Be Needed to Help Pull Texas Out of Drought<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/hurricane-isaac\/\">hurricane isaac<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThe first is a pattern that has been in place since 1995 and has produced a lot of hurricanes in the Atlantic since 1995,\u201d Bell says. \u201cIt produces things like weaker wind shear, much more conducive winds coming from Africa, warmer Atlantic Ocean temperatures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bell says scientists also study the fluctuating temperatures of the Atlantic and the El Nino and <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/la-nina\/\">La Nina cycle<\/a>. \u00a0He says El Nino typically suppresses many hurricanes from forming or gaining strength.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs far as predicting an active season, we\u2019re usually pretty accurate at that,\u201d Bell says. \u201cLast year we under-predicted the season strength because all the climate models predicted El Nino to form, but it didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the devastation of Sandy fresh in our minds, and another active season predicted, everyone at NOAA is committed to providing life-saving forecasts in the face of these storms,\u201d NOAA Acting Administrator <a href=\"http:\/\/www.noaanews.noaa.gov\/stories2013\/20130523_hurricaneoutlook_atlantic.html\">Dr. Kathryn Sullivan said in a statement.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Even with the factors that help predict what type of season lies ahead, Bell says forecasters can\u2019t estimate where or even if the storms will make landfall just yet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere, when, how strong when they make landfall are really controlled by weather patterns when they approach, which aren\u2019t predictable but a week in advance,\u201d he says. \u201cBut historically, there is a very high likelihood for multiple hurricane strikes in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bell stressed that many hurricanes have an impact beyond the coastline. He said heavy rains and strong winds associated with the storm can effect areas hundreds of miles inland.<\/p>\n<p>But, as National Weather Service Southern Region climate program manager Victor Murphy <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/04\/11\/hurricanes-may-be-needed-to-help-pull-texas-out-of-drought\/\">has pointed out in the past<\/a>, it could take an event as severe as a hurricane to pull Texas out of the continuing drought.<\/p>\n<p>When the Atlantic storms form, the monikers they will acquire will come from a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wmo.int\/pages\/prog\/www\/tcp\/Storm-naming.html\">list of 21 names<\/a> maintained by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wmo.int\/pages\/index_en.html\">the World Meteorological Organization.<\/a> Most of the names on the list were used during the 2007 season, and will be used again in 2019. Storms causing notable damage have their names replaced on future lists.<\/p>\n<p>Hurricane Barbara, which recently made landfall on Mexico\u2019s Pacific coast, is the second storm in this year\u2019s Pacific Hurricane Season, which started May 15, but rarely affects North America.<\/p>\n<h5><em><strong>Olivia Gordon is a reporting intern with StateImpact Texas.<\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tomorrow marks the beginning of the six-month Atlantic hurricane season, and forecasters think it might be a doozy. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u00a0(NOAA) predicts this coming season will produce more than 13 named storms. An average season produces 12, but the amount of hurricanes and major hurricanes is predicted to be above average as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":28388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[61,122,160,110,212],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28383"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28393,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28383\/revisions\/28393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}