February 02, 2010

Last Year’s Storms and Tomorrow’s Warnings

The National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) Hurricane Specialist, Robbie Berg, shares insight into last year’s storm season and how to prepare for 2010

Q: Weather Channel meteorologist Steve Lyons shared that the 2009 storm season was less active than normal, among other characteristics. What stands out for you, about the 2009 hurricane season?

A: Yes, the season was particularly slow. We had 9 tropical storms and 3 hurricanes, only 2 of which reached Category 3 status or higher. This was the lowest activity season since 1997. This appears to be associated with the El Niño event that developed last summer.

Q: January 5, your office announced a major improvement in track forecasting that will allow you to warn the public 12 hours earlier than before. Tell us more about this important advancement.

A: The past decade has seen major improvements in storm track forecasting which now allows us to issue watches about hurricanes and tropical storms 48 hours in advance of the time when strong winds are expected to begin instead of 36 hours (and warnings 36 hours in advance instead of 24 hours).

Residents of storm zones have to make a lot of tough decisions in a short space of time when a storm is approaching. More lead time is something they’ve been asking for, and we were happy to be able to answer that call.