WNKY NEWS 40 Weather Report: La Nina’s Impact On Hurricanes

Our world of weather is always changing. What drives those changes? It all has to do with the changing patterns. Jet streams are what steer our weather systems across the globe, including hurricanes.  Hurricane Beryl, became an historic storm after being the earliest storm to  gain  major hurricane strength during the Atlantic Hurricane season. Beryl  brought flooding rains in parts of Texas, its post tropical remnants were responsible for numerous tornado warnings across our region. All eyes are on the tropics, since this is just the start of what could be an active hurricane season. 

“Earlier this year, the hurricane forecast was released by NOAA, and it was a pretty aggressive forecast for the amount of hurricanes that they’re expecting in the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea area.”  Said Brian Schoettmer, senior meteorologist at the National Weather Service. 

 The Atlantic Hurricane season lasts from June 1 to November 30. With the tropics already quite active, this poses concerns for how busy this hurricane season could be. La Nina’s patterns can be conducive to increasing hurricane activity due to a less sheared set-up, where hurricanes can thrive. 

“What happens is you need those hurricanes to basically gain some north latitude or come up towards, towards the continental United States.” Schoettmer said

Hurricanes can reach the Gulf coast typically when there is an upper level ridge pattern across the southeast. 

So far, there’s been two named storms, the National Hurricane Center is monitoring areas of potential development in the Atlantic. Schoettmer mentions this active tropical season doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll see more remnant systems move through our area, but it does set the stage where that could be a possibility.