Southeast Producers Warned to Prepare for Storms
Climate experts are predicting another busy and dangerous Atlantic storm season.
Ben Friedman, Acting NOAA Administrator told the USDA news service there is a 70% chance that we’ll see in the Atlantic basin...
Friedman: “Thirteen to twenty named storms, six to ten will become hurricanes, this includes three to five major hurricanes. There is a 60% chance of an above-normal season and a 10% chance of a below-normal season.”
This is the same forecast experts were making a year ago, but before last year’s hurricane season was over there were a total of thirty named storms and a record twelve named storms made landfall in the US. More than 40 billion dollars in damage and tragically more than 430 people died in those storms.
Experts say the good news is that the La Nina weather pattern is not in effect this season. However there are large swaths of warm Atlantic waters and weak trade winds, a combination could be dangerous.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried posted a video telling producers and families to have a storm plan ready. It’s the same message in Alabama where Ag commissioner Rick Pate recently announced relief funds are finally available for producers following 2018’s Hurricane Michael which also damaged agriculture in Georgia.
