Disaster Recovery News

The term, “El Niño”, refers to the unpredictable phenomenon that occurs over the Pacific Ocean that causes a warming trend. This trend makes thunderstorms stronger and increases rainfall over Asia, Australia, and North and South America. When it is an El Niño year, the US typically sees fewer hurricanes make landfall.

Scientists are now seeing new trends in El Niño that could now not only cause more hurricanes to form more often, but also cause more hurricanes to touch land. This weather pattern is now being called El Niño Modoki. Modoki is a Japanese word that means, “similar, but different”.

Science Daily reports that  Modoki is more predict able. The advantage of this is that forecasters at the National Hurricane Center will be able to tell what the hurricane season will bring with more than one month of anticipation.

More on these new findings.

With hurricane season here, there are steps one can take to help prepare for the flooding that comes with these tropical storms. Click here to learn how to plan, prepare, act, and recover.

The 2008 hurricane season is coming to a close on November 30th after sixteen storms (eight of these being hurricanes) hit the United States. Colorado State University researchers stated to the AFP that this year’s season has ended with record damages. A typical hurricane season has eleven tropical storms and five hurricanes, two of which are considered of high-intensity. 

Of the eight hurricanes, five of the storms categories 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Hurricanes Ike and Gustav were the big contributors to the estimated 20 billion dollars of damage.

More on this story.

Learn more about recovering from water damage.