Wednesday, June 4, 2025–10:00 a.m.
-Staff reports-
Hurricane season began on June 1, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting a 30 percent chance of a near-normal season and a 60 percent chance of an above-normal season.
The agency is forecasting a total of 13 to 19 named storms.
“The good news is, their prediction models are getting much better with what they are able to do with computers, satellites, and probably even AI mixed in there as well,” said Chris Fincher with Floyd County Emergency Management. “We are looking at 60 percent of the storms this year being above normal, and that can be either rainfall or intensity. NOAA and the National Weather Service combined have gotten better at predicting the intensity of storms.”
You may also see some changes to the forecast cone graphic.
“Sometimes that cone can be deceptive,” Fincher said. “People think that just because they are not inside that little area, or they are not close to it, they are safe, but that’s not true. That cone is intended only to be a direction of travel. There is so much that radiates off of that which causes problems for people. So, what you are probably going to see this year is that NOAA and the National Weather Service are going to change the way that looks. It’s going to be a little smaller, but you are going to start seeing more watches and warnings coming off of that.”
As we saw last year with Helene, hurricanes don’t just impact the coasts.
“The National Weather Service was able to see, a few days out, that this was going to be a bad storm,” Fincher said. “Luckily for us, we were able to sit down and do some planning. We were able to bring in the fire department, public works, and everybody. Even Georgia Power was a part of those conversations to go ahead and prepare.”
The main threats we can see from hurricanes in our area are high winds, flooding, and tornadoes.
You can read the report from NOAA here.