With projections pointing to a busier-than-usual tropical season in the Atlantic this year, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division (SCEMD) is urging Palmetto State citizens (and visitors) to get their hands on a copy of this year’s official hurricane guide.
“The official 2022 South Carolina Hurricane guide has all the information people need to be prepared for hurricane season,” SCEMD spokesman Derrec Becker said this week. “Our theme for this Hurricane Season is ‘Know Your Zone, Prepare Your Home, Remember Your Route.’ The guide gets you started with all of those.”
You can download the guide by visiting SCEMD’s hurricane preparedness page at Hurricane.SC.
Or just click on it …
(Click to view)
(Via: SCEMD)
For those of you in need of a physical copy … they are en route.
“Throughout the month of June, hard copies of the guide will start to make their way to all Walgreens in the state, all South Carolina welcome centers, and coastal DMV offices and at any public preparedness event,” Becker said.
As I reported last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has called for “above-average hurricane activity this year — which would make (2022) the seventh consecutive above-average hurricane season.”
Specifically, NOAA forecasters believe there is a 65 percent chance of above-normal tropical activity, compared with a 25 percent chance of a near-normal season and only a 10 percent chance of a below-normal season.
Meanwhile, researchers at Colorado State University (CSU) are also projecting a busy 2022 season – including 19 named storms, nine (9) hurricanes and four (4) major hurricanes (i.e. storms with maximum sustained winds higher than 111 miles per hour).
The last two seasons have been off the charts for tropical activity, as you can see in this chart pulled together by our intrepid researcher Jenn Wood.
As I have noted in previous coverage, the number (and severity) of storms generated in the Atlantic is driven in no small part by the temperature of the water on the other side of the planet – in the Pacific Ocean (a.k.a. El Niño or La Niña).
El Niño is the periodic warming of the central and eastern equatorial regions of the Pacific Ocean – while La Niña refers to the cooling of the Pacific that takes place in its aftermath. During El Niño years, hurricanes are less likely to form in the Atlantic due to increased wind shear. During La Niña, the potential for hurricane formation and rapid intensification is much stronger.
La Niña has been the dominant pattern in recent years … hence the elevated activity.
South Carolina has seen 24 hurricane landfalls since 1893 – the most recent being Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and the most infamous being Hurricane Hugo in 1989 (the state’s last direct hit from a major system). The Palmetto State was nearly hit in 2020 by Hurricane Isaias (or, as governor Henry McMaster called it, Hurricane “Icy Isis”).
Other recent close calls included Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and Hurricane Irene in 2011.
Readers interested in learning more about the Palmetto State’s hurricane history should check out this nifty new report (.pdf) from the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR).
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
(Via: FITSNews)
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven children.
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