WEATHER BEAT: Hurricane Season is in Full Swing

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September 10 is the climatological peak for the Atlantic Hurricane Season, and the Atlantic Ocean is right on queue.

The United States has just recently had two Category 4 landfalling hurricanes in a single hurricane season, something that has never happened before. In fact, prior to 2017, our last major landfalling hurricane in the United States was back in 2005.

In terms of hurricanes so far this season, Harvey will go down as the wettest storm in U.S. history dropping as much as 51.9 inches of rain in southeast Texas. To put that into perspective, we typically consider two to three inches of rain to be a significant rain event.

Of course, as soon as we thought we were in the clear, September comes in with not one, but three significant hurricanes; Irma, Katia, and Jose.

Hurricane Katia went into Mexico and is not posing any threat to the United States. Another storm that we are closely monitoring is Hurricane Jose. Once ruled out, it still has a chance to impact the United States in the future, but models are still in disagreement.

As for today’s top story, Hurricane Irma is bearing down on Florida as we speak. As of Sunday night, Hurricane Irma is now a downgraded Category 2 hurricane. This is not to say we should let our guard down.

Irma has brought hurricane conditions to much of the Florida's peninsula. Irma's projected path is expected to impact areas beyond Florida that include, but are not limited to portions of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, then eventually bringing some rain to our region by late week. By this point, Irma will just be a remnant low, but we can't rule out a couple inches of rain as this low crosses our region.

Please continue to stay tuned to my Facebook page for continuing coverage of Hurricanes Irma and Jose.

My favorite thing to do is study the weather. It is truly fascinating. Nothing beats a good thunderstorm. I became very interested in weather when I lived in Okinawa, Japan for four years and was actually inside a super typhoon.

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