Not trying to write a gloomy story today, but the good old USA is not only the world capitol for tornadoes, but seemingly in the last year or so it was also the world capitol for tropical storms and hurricanes.
The 2005 hurricane season set all sorts of records, including the most named storms ever. A few weeks ago, the National Hurricane Center, doing a postmortem on the 2005 season, determined that a late season storm in the far Eastern Atlantic was semi-tropical in nature and it became the 28th one of the season. There were 15 hurricanes, including 7 major hurricanes. Six tropical storms or hurricanes struck the USA.
How can we ever forget the names Katrina, Rita and Wilma—just to name a few? They will go down in history.
All indicators point to another active season ahead (hurricane season starts officially June 1). It may not be as active as last season, but it is too horrible to even think about another major hurricane striking Florida or anywhere along the Gulf Coast. Even a weaker hurricane would be a tragedy for the Louisiana-Mississippi-Alabama coast where recovery is far from complete from the last storms. Let’s just hope and pray that they will stay out to sea this year.
There is no place in the world that has more tornadoes than the good old USA from east of the Rockies across the Plains into the Midwest and here in the SE. We have already had 591 tornado reports this year. Of course, those will be reduced somewhat after final inspections. Last year at this same time, the final count stood at only 239. The USA has seen 49 fatalities in the first four months of this year as compared to 38 for all of last year and 36 in 2004.
Our first tropical storm name of the year will be Alberto. Let’s hope he never makes it to hurricane strength.
-J.B. Elliott
The 2005 hurricane season set all sorts of records, including the most named storms ever. A few weeks ago, the National Hurricane Center, doing a postmortem on the 2005 season, determined that a late season storm in the far Eastern Atlantic was semi-tropical in nature and it became the 28th one of the season. There were 15 hurricanes, including 7 major hurricanes. Six tropical storms or hurricanes struck the USA.
How can we ever forget the names Katrina, Rita and Wilma—just to name a few? They will go down in history.
All indicators point to another active season ahead (hurricane season starts officially June 1). It may not be as active as last season, but it is too horrible to even think about another major hurricane striking Florida or anywhere along the Gulf Coast. Even a weaker hurricane would be a tragedy for the Louisiana-Mississippi-Alabama coast where recovery is far from complete from the last storms. Let’s just hope and pray that they will stay out to sea this year.
There is no place in the world that has more tornadoes than the good old USA from east of the Rockies across the Plains into the Midwest and here in the SE. We have already had 591 tornado reports this year. Of course, those will be reduced somewhat after final inspections. Last year at this same time, the final count stood at only 239. The USA has seen 49 fatalities in the first four months of this year as compared to 38 for all of last year and 36 in 2004.
Our first tropical storm name of the year will be Alberto. Let’s hope he never makes it to hurricane strength.
-J.B. Elliott