And just like clockwork, Tim,
you are already tracking
two tropical disturbances.
Yeah, pretty amazing.
Six years in a row.
Like he said, early season storms I
want to show you the forecast first,
let's check it out.
This is from the Hurricane
Center than no organization.
And this year they're expecting
between 13 and 20 named storms.
Now when we say name storms what that means
that's tropical storms plus hurricanes now,
of those about 6 to 10 would
become hurricanes and three to five
would be the big ones.
Those are cat 3 or higher.
The averages are right over here.
This is an above average forecast.
And there are a couple of
different reasons for that,
but one of the main ones
is just warmer oceans.
To be honest with you right now,
the ocean waters are
already warmer than average.
This year is not an El Nino.
It's also not a lot Nina,
it's neutral and a lot of times,
especially recently neutral years have
produced above average hurricane seasons.
This is right off the North
Carolina coast right now.
82 degree water on the Gulf
Stream still cooler where you go.
Swimming at the beaches but just offshore
that water is already warm enough.
Let's talk about the two quick disturbances.
There's One North of Bermuda.
This is not going to harm anybody.
That's what I call a fish storm.
We don't have to worry about it,
but there's a good chance that could
become tropical storm on a anytime
you already see the swirling motion.
Now we're in the Gulf of Mexico.
This is the other system.
We're keeping an eye on.
This could become a tropical depression,
bringing some rain to Texas and Louisiana.
Two systems will let you know
if and when they develop.
But you don't have to live on the coast
to see major impacts in the Triad.
We can't forget the impacts of Matthew in
2016 and Florence and Michael in 2018.
Hurricane Matthew caused intense flooding
that forced people out of their homes.
Even six months after,
140 families were still living in hotels and
many more were living with family or friends.
Still unable to go home,
Florence was one of the deadliest
and costliest hurricanes to
ever hit the Carolinas.
It caused at least 51 deaths
and brought extensive.
Flooding not only was Florence destructive,
it was huge, spanning 340 miles,
it covered much of the state once it
moved across the land just a month later,
Michael hit an.
It was much worse than Florence.
The storm caused a lot of
damage to state industry.
We lost $600 million worth of cotton crop,
$483 million in fruits and vegetables,
and $790 million in timber.
Noah ranks hurricanes into five categories.
As you know, five is the worst.
Each causes different impacts,
even if you don't meet the eye
of a hurricane. Tropical storm
force winds are nothing to mess around with.
This is what Clearwater Beach
felt during Hurricane Irma.
Sustained winds from 39
to 73 mph gusts over 100.
You want to be careful flying debris
and downed power lines at 74 mph.
You're dealing with a category one like
most of Tampa Bay did during Hurricane Irma.
Well constructed homes could see
damages the roof. And vinyl siding.
Extensive tree damage is posed
an additional risk for you,
your home, and your car.
Your screen exclosure could come
tumbling down and the power grid
should see major disruptions.
Storm surge is also possible.
Turning streets into rivers.
At 96 mph, you've got a cat to
like Hurricane Frances Wichita,
near West Palm Beach.
When the wind gets this intense cosmetic
damage is the least of your worries.
Falling trees and flying debris
become the deadliest threats
to both you and your home tree.
Branches become projectiles,
but window or a door gets blown
out of an older home.
The winds can rush inside and blow
the roof right off. You can
also expect significant
storm surge in some places,
enough to put some of Florida's
coastal cities underwater.
At 111 mph, you've got a major
category, three hurricane,
like when Katrina hit New Orleans,
mobile homes don't stand a chance.
An older homes without a roof
to collapse in upon themselves.
Even newer construction is now at risk,
especially citing doors and roofs.
130 mph marks a category four storm
like Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
or Charlie and Southwest Florida
blown open doors and smashed windows
can lead to even new homes failing
power poles will be uprooted,
snap or down and even
if your home survives the wind deadly
storm surge can leave it uninhabitable.
Not only will there be no water or power,
but you may not have access
to the area for awhile. And
if a storm produces sustained winds
of 157 mph, it becomes a Category
5 like Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Catastrophic damage is guaranteed
with total destruction.
In some places, the area will
likely be uninhabitable for months.
The good news is the eye of a
hurricane packing these most
powerful winds is usually localized,
but the bad news is in a major hurricane.
Even if you dodge the eye,
damaging winds can extend hundreds
of miles in all directions.
And we've certainly seen several
of those in North Carolina fun fact
that we've never had a Category
5 hurricane to hit the state.
We hope that doesn't happen.
Wanted to show you this map and what
I'm going to breakdown is what parts
of the country get hit the most.
An North Carolina is one of those
the other would be South Florida.
Those little red dots there
also coastal Louisiana,
but part of the reason we are one
of the most frequently hit places.
It's just geography.
If you look at the East Coast,
we stick out like a sore thumb,
usually hurricanes when they're moving north.
Their curving and they're trying
to curve back out to sea,
so it's very hard for them to hit Georgia
or South Carolina with that curve.
It's so easy for them to get,
maybe clip Wilmington or maybe then
keep lookout or Cape Hatteras so
the return time for a hurricane
there is just five years,
which is pretty common in pretty
frequent for a storm to hit our state.
By the way, the most active time of year,
I know,
June 1st is the beginning of the season.
It's not June for us,
it's usually August,
September and early October.
That's the busiest time of year.
You've
likely heard of the Hurricane Hunters.
They fly into the storm to
collect critical data. It
is simultaneously the most exciting
flight you can have and sort of the
most terrifying flight you can have.
Almost at the same time,
scientists on board will use 3 radar
along with a whole suite of instruments
to take readings from the flight
level all the way down to the ocean.
Surface hunters are able to
prod the storm to get as much
information out of it as possible.
You really don't know the current
state of a storm. Until you fly in it,
you just don't know the exact details.
So what do they do during the
offseason while they fly into different
types of storms across the globe?
Getting a better understanding
of storm cause and effect?
Here's a fun fact for you.
The two Hurricane Hunter airplanes
are named Kermit and Miss Piggy.
Alright, now Muppet names
on this year's name list.
And by the way, in case you didn't know,
we started naming hurricanes back in 1953.
It began with all female names.
That's not very nice,
so we changed it in 1978.
Now it alternates one is female,
the next is mail back and forth that goes.
This year's list is just here.
We have on a Bill, Claudette Danny,
Elsa couple of frozen names here this year.
For some reason, Fred Grace, Onry,
Ida, Julian, Kate, Larry, Mindy.
Nicholas, there's more Odette,
Peter Rose, Sam, Teresa,
Victor, and Wanda.
Now that's the list.
If you remember last year was a
record breaking year for hurricanes.
We had 30 named storms.
That's more names that are on
this is it used to be that we
would go to the Greek alphabet.
I say used to be because that rule
has been changed for this year.
We're never going to use the Greek
alphabet for hurricanes again,
and the reason is is some of the
ones last year were so bad when
you retire a name for a storm,
well, you can't use it again,
so we couldn't really use
those Greek names again.
So there's an alternate list
that hopefully we won't need it,
but if we go through all it'll do.
Tornadoes two and floods and
everything else in between.