El Niño is winding down, and the chance for a hurricane is going up.
Florida Climate Center climatologist Daniel Brouillette says the changing weather pattern could mean more big storms. Warm weather associated with El Niño has been keeping hurricanes at bay, but decreasing temperatures could pave the way to increased hurricane activity.
“There’s things we call teleconnections, and one teleconnection is ENSO, which is the El Niño Southern Oscillation. That is reflected in sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, and those are currently cooling down. That tends to be associated with increased hurricane activity in the Atlantic basin,” says Brouillette.
Officials say it’s hard to know when or where a storm will hit. They encourage every home and business to have an action plan for the event of a hurricane in the area. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration is predicting 10 to 16 named storms, including four to eight hurricanes.
