The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season officially began this week, and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting it could be a busy one in the western Atlantic.
The weakening of last year’s “El Niño” phenomenon in the Pacific should mean that upper-level winds that can keep Atlantic hurricanes from growing or steer them away from the United States and Caribbean will be diminished this year. As a result, NOAA is anticipating a busier-than-normal season, with between 14 and 23 named tropical systems in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico this year, and eight to 14 hurricanes, with three to seven of those developing into major hurricanes with winds over 110 mph.
There are no predictions made for the likelihood of a hurricane hitting any specific region of the country, but the East End will play host to one of seven hurricane preparedness seminars being held along the East Coast and Gulf states later this month. Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman and emergency managers from several East End agencies will host the Mitigation Education for Natural Disasters meeting at the Southampton Cultural Center in Southampton Village on June 29 from 7 to 9 p.m. to discuss emergency procedures, preparedness and insurance issues. The MEND program is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
A hurricane has not directly impacted Long Island since Hurricane Gloria in September 1986, though hurricane force winds swept across the East End in August 1991, topping 100 mph in Montauk, when the eye of Hurricane Bob passed just to the east, over Block Island.
“The South Fork is particularly vulnerable to high winds off the Atlantic and the destructive power of the ocean during a storm surge,” Mr. Schneiderman was quoted as saying in a press release this week. Last winter’s storms have left the area’s ocean beaches, the first and often only line of protection from advancing storm surge, anemic.
MICHAEL WRIGHT
on Jun 2, 2010