Hunker-Down Season Upon Us

In an Associated Press article appearing in the Gainesville Sun today, the federal Climate Prediction Center has affirmed predictions of a very active hurricane season this year by reporting on the observed emergence of a La Niña pattern. La Niña, which involves relatively cool waters in the Pacific, tends to spur develop of Atlantic hurricanes without the wind shear that helps to control their number and intensity. The result: seasons like 1995, 2004, and 2005. Add 2010 to that list and "hunker down"!

For Floridians, 2004 and 2005 were monster hurricane seasons. For us in Gainesville, 2004, with its triple threats of hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jean, were a sign of things to come. Ivan, although not a threat to us, did crash into the Florida panhandle and caused a lot of damage. And 2005, with megastorms Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, only bore that notion out (not to mention that the named storms for that year wore out the traditional alphabet and went all the way to zeta in the Greek alphabet).

This year I predict we may not make it all the way through to "Zeta" or even "Z", but we will have some exciting and even scary times to contend with. Especially come August, September, and October. Not just for Florida, either. And not just for states bordering the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean. I mean the entire eastern part of the United States.