BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Hurricane season does not officially start until Wednesday, June 1, but that is not stopping Gov. John Bel Edwards from getting ready ahead of time.
Gov. Edwards along with members of his cabinet held a news conference to talk about preparedness ahead of the 2022 hurricane season.
Edwards and leaders from GOHSEP continue to stress to residents to Get a Game Plan before any hurricane makes its way to Louisiana.
“While we always hope and pray for the best, when it comes to hurricane season, everyone in Louisiana should prepare for the worst,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said. “Each person and family should be reviewing their plans for what they will do and where they will go if their community is affected by a hurricane this year. We know some people are still in the process of rebuilding their homes following the previous two hurricane seasons, which may mean their evacuation plans need to change, unfortunately. In addition, all Louisianans are affected by COVID. While the current risk level in Louisiana and hospitalizations are both low, it’s important that people get up-to-date with their COVID vaccinations so that they are better protected if they must evacuate or host others because of a storm.”
Meteorologists at Colorado State University predict a busier-than-average storm season with more named hurricanes than usual.
The university’s forecast, released recently, calls for 19 named storms this year.
Of the 19 named storms predicted this year, the CSU outlook expects nine to strengthen into hurricanes. Of those nine hurricanes, four are expected to be “major hurricanes.”
The reason the team expects a more active storm season than usual has to do with the current La Niña conditions, which are lasting longer than expected. La Niña is expected to transition to an “ENSO-neutral” pattern (meaning neither La Niña nor El Niño conditions) sometime in the fall, but it seems unlikely that we’ll switch to an El Niño pattern in time for hurricane season.
Hurricane Season begins on June 1 and runs through November 30. Louisiana has experienced five hurricanes over the course of the past two seasons, including the two strongest to make landfall in Louisiana history.