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On April 24th 2012, The Weather Channel (www.weather.com) published it’s 2012 “preseason forecast”, predicting a “less-active” season than the 1950-2011 average. Since then however, a record number of 12 named storms have developed over the Atlantic, of which 5 have developed into hurricane – a tally which puts the 2012 hurricane season significantly “ahead of the pace”.
Hurricane Season 2012 – so far
The 2012 Hurricane Season started early (nearly 2 weeks ahead of the official start of the season) on May 19th, with the development of Tropical Storm Alberto, shortly followed by Tropical Storm Beryl on May 23rd. The occurrence of 2 named storms before the start of the season has not happened since 1908.
Next came Hurricane Chris and Tropical Storm Debby who formed on June 17th and June 23rd respectively – the first time ever (since records began in 1851) that 4 named storms have developed before July.
Throughout July and August, Hurricane Ernesto, Tropical Storm Florence, Hurricane Gordon, Tropical Storm Helene, Hurricane Isaac and Tropical Storm Joyce have continued this relentless pace. In fact, during an “average” Hurricane Season the “J” storm is not expected until late October, so when Tropical Storm Joyce formed on August 22nd the (second earliest “J” date since records began) she put the 2012 Hurricane Season nearly 2 months ahead of schedule.
And then with the sudden development of Hurricane Kirk and Tropical Strom Leslie in the last few days of August (August 28th and August 30th respectively) – that pushed the total number of named storms in the month of August to a whopping 8 – the record number of named storms every to develop in the month of August (a record which was set during the 2004 hurricane season).
Tropical Storm Isaac in Casa de Campo
Hurricane Season 2012 – what’s to come?
Following the “near miss” of Tropical Storm Isaac which brought a rather aggressive storm surge to the coast of Casa de Campo and the Dominican Republic – we are understandably a little concerned about what the remaining 3 months of the 2012 Hurricane Season has in store for us……
The National Hurricane Center is now predicting that by the end of the season (November 30th), a total of between 12 and 19 named storms will have developed (although now that the total has already reached 12, we imagine this number might get updated again). Unfortunately we have no idea how many will effect us here in the Dominican Republic but – let us remember that it is extremely rare for a hurricane to hit the Dominican Republic, so there is no need to worry! In fact in the last 80 years, the Dominican Republic has only been directly hit by 11 hurricanes.
But just in case:
1. Be prepared – click here for our tips for preparing for a hurricane or tropical storm
2. Keep informed
Whilst we at Casa de Campo Living will do our best to keep you informed, we recommend the following for keeping extra-informed:
• www.nhc.noaa.gov – The National Hurricane Centre
• www.weather.com – The Weather Channel
• ONAMET.gov.do – the Dominican Republic’s official weather warning people (this one is in Spanish)
• Twitter: We recommend following NHC_Atlantic – for regular tweets on hurricanes, tropical storms etc
DISCLAIMER!
I, Rebecca Hughes am not at all qualified to be predicting the weather – I am nothing more than a humble journalist / editor, who just happens to be rather fascinated with the weather (it’s a British thing).
To help me write this fascinating and informative article I used the following reliable sources:
• www.wikipedia.org
• www.weather.com