SARASOTA – Get rid of your raincoats and umbrellas because hurricane season is coming to an end. Hurricane season ends officially, Saturday, a relief to us here on the Suncoast.
2019’s Hurricane season turned out to be one of the better ones. SNN meteorologist, Dan Henry says we had 18 named storms, which is above average.
“Six hurricanes, two of which became a category five,” Dan Henry said. “Which is the strongest on the scale, and it’s pretty infrequent that we get multiple category fives.”
Category 5, Dorian had the most catastrophic impacts of the season. Reports show nearly 60 lives were lost and more than 8 million dollars in damage to the Bahamas.
Meteorologist Henry says Dorian expected to make its way to the Suncoast but, due to the steering factors in the atmosphere, it changed course.
“We knew that there was going to be an area, another front to take it out to sea,” Henry said. “We just didn’t know how quickly that front was going to move. And, it was just a difference of a few hours, timing, over the course of an entire week. And, you see how small the margin is, that would have made the difference between East Florida getting a category 5 and essentially getting tropical-storm-force winds.”
Compared to previous years, Florida got lucky.
“We didn’t have any hurricanes,” Henry said. “We had one post-tropical storm, so we didn’t even have any named tropical storms making landfall. Obviously, we had some outer impacts from Dorian. But, as far as direct impacts, we really missed the worst of it this year.”
But, that doesn’t mean we’re clear.
“We are seeing more extreme weather events,” Henry said. “And the severe weather events that already would have occurred are becoming more frequent and stronger when they do occur. And, when you have an increase in temperature, energy is increasing as well. So, when you have more energy, obviously then you have more potential for storms.”
So, while hurricane season is ending, it’s important to remember climate changes can cause serious problems in the future. We know how fast 6 months go by, so the key to surviving the next storm is preparation, because it only takes one.
