Hurricane season is still a little while away, but we can expect this year, like last year, to be a busy one. That’s according to Pam Knox, Agricultural Climatologist and Director of the UGA Weather Network.
Knox says last year was a busy one for hurricanes and it’s looking like we can expect a similar situation this year.
"It was extremely busy last year although I don't think necessarily we're going to see that many storms. We went all the way through the alphabet, and well into the Greek alphabet as well. It's probably going to be another busy year. The reason I say that is that we are in a La Nina right now, and we're supposed to go away and go back to the neutral condition."
She explains how those neutral conditions can mean negative consequences when it comes to storms.
"In neutral conditions, there's not a strong jet stream high up in the atmosphere and that means any storms that develop are likely to grow. So they've got much more growth when they don't have that high-level wind blowing the top off these developing storms."
Knox says recent research shows the frequency of hurricanes may be increasing, but that’s not the only potentially bad news for coastal states like Georgia.
"One of the things that we do know, is that hurricanes are tending to slow down more as they get close to the coast, which means that we have a longer time period for damage to occur. And also it means they can drop more rain."
Hurricane season starts June 1st and runs through the end of November, with the peak coming around Labor Day, though storms can come before the official start.
