HYANNIS – A busy Atlantic hurricane season is being anticipated by the National Weather Service.
Data from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center suggests that there is roughly a 60% chance that there will be an above average number of tropical storms and hurricanes this year.
“What that doesn’t tell us is where those storms are going to be,” said Andy Nash, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“There’s no skill in being able to forecast, this far out, where are they going to form and where are they going to go.”
Nash said that the 60% figure suggests that 2020 will be a part of a longer trend, where more activity is seen as opposed to less.
Nash explained that the New England region needs to be prepared in the event that a serious storm does touch down in the area.
He said that typically, a storm that will hit southern New England will track through the Bahamas before taking a turn and turning up the eastern coast of the United States.
Cold water weakens hurricanes, Nash explained, so a storm can lose power if it comes up the coast slow enough to be cooled off by water or “ripped up” by a jet stream.
“If the storm can be intense enough and is moving forward–the forward speed is fast enough–then it can maintain its intensity and still be a major hurricane by the time it gets here,” he continued.
Nash mentioned that the 1938 hurricane in New England proved to be an example of one of those storms, as it moved up the East Coast at a rate of 60 miles per hour. A storm moving that quickly can move from the coast of North Carolina to New England in about 12 hours, so preparation is vital.
Considering it’s been decades since a major hurricane has hit the area, Nash said, now is the time to get ready.
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