The 2010 Hurricane Season

The 2010 hurricane season begins on June 1 and runs thru November 30. Favorable conditions in the atmosphere as well as warmer than normal sea surface temperatures in the southern Atlantic are setting the stage for an active season. The peak in activity usually occurs in August and September, however there have been notable early season storms. Hurricane Agnes caused devastating floods along the Susquehanna River region of eastern Pennsylvania in June 1972. As the storm approached the mid Atlantic, it made a left hand turn into eastern Pennsylvania and actually stalled over the region for a few days, dropping torrential rains. Some locations along it's path received between 10-15 inches. The jet stream at the time caused the storm to take such a path. Anytime we have a trough of low pressure in the upper atmosphere along the East Coast as we did in June 1972, we need to keep a close eye on any storms over the southern Atlantic and Gulf Coast. The eastern side of a trough has winds that usually blow from the south at upper levels of the atmosphere, thus bringing activity our way from the south. It remains to be seen whether any storms will make landfall this season, however we should prepare ourselves now in case we face such a scenario later on. As a meteorologist, I will keep my eye on the Tropics throughout this season especially when a trough approaches the East Coast.