Global weather experts considering earlier start date for Atlantic Hurricane Season

Published by BBN Staff at March 2, 2021

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Posted: Tuesday, March 2, 2021. 11:26 am CST.

By BBN Staff: Global weather experts are considering moving the June 1 start date of the Atlantic Hurricane Season to an earlier date, according to Yahoo News.

While the Atlantic Hurricane Season has started on June 1 for more than 50 years, the increasing occurrences of named storms in the month of May over the past six years, have experts considering moving the start date of the season to May 15. The most recent example of May storms was in 2020 with Tropical Storm Arthur came to life on May 16, followed by Tropical Storm Bertha on May 27.

Discussions on an earlier start date were already held in December of 2020 at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) hurricane conference, following the most active hurricane season on record which saw the formation of 30 named storms.

Colorado State University researcher Phil Klotzbach, who was a part of those discussions, said that 19 named storms have formed before the month of June 1 since the late 1960s, when satellites began identifying tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic. Klotzbach said that he has concerns about moving the start date of the season to May 15, because the most dangerous storms typically don’t occur until the height of the season (late August to mid-October).

“If you extend the season another 15 days, you could basically have three months with very little storm activity,” Klotzbach said. “People can only prepare for things for so long before they just say ‘forget it.’”

Notably, the length of the season has already been subject to two changes. An article by AccuWeather notes that the end of the season was moved from October 31 to November. 13, and then later moved from November 13 to November 30, where it is today.

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