3/8/07 More Hurricanes this year?

In a report that came out last week, La Nina, which is the opposite of El Nino, may come this year. El Nino had an impact on our winter weather, especially during the November to Mid January time frame with the warmer temps and position of the Jet Stream. While La Nina has not officially started, waters are cooling in the mid-Pacific equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean.

La Nina could have an impact not only on continental U.S. but also in the Atlantic Hurricane Basin, meaning more hurricanes are possible by changing tropical rain and wind patterns in the Pacific and impacting the rest of the world.

News organizations have already seen this report and have hit the airways, and when hurricane season starts up, June 1^st, you will hear more. Its funny because when I received an email from the a colleague, the first thing he said was more Hurricanes! He sent me a news copy that he had read. This news copy pointed to not only more hurricanes but droughts. One thing to note, La Nina is just one of many factors in forecasting the hurricane season. Last year there was thought that the hurricane season would be above average, yet wind shear was one of the main reasons the season was below average.

While many will focus on the hurricanes we could be drier here and that is not good news since we are approaching 7 inches below average. .

A spring outlook is due next week from NOAA.

Here is the report from NOAA.

Here is more on La Nina.  

See you soon,

Brian