Hurricane Season Gets a Few Million Boosts

Getting to know hurricanes takes big money (as in millions of dollars). By improving the forecasting of hurricanes, researchers hope to save lives and property. Like any good investment, the United States hopes to get a good return on their invested funds. Recently, the Bush administration quadrupled funding for hurricane research to $17 million dollars. The original request for funding was $4 million dollars, but with damages from even a mild hurricane turning into billion dollar storms, the Bush administration bolsters that figure for the 2009 fiscal year.

Part of the goal in the increased budget is to promote scientific inquiry so that lives and property can be saved. The Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project was a plan put into place after the devastation of hurricane Katrina in 2005. Knowing the intensity of a hurricane and the lead time for forecasting can help citizens to get to safer locations with more time to spare. The Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project plans to increase hurricane tracking and intensity accuracy by 20% by 2013.

The news of a budget increase could not come at a better time since NOAA announced a high likelihood that the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season would be above normal. 14-18 named storms for 2008 are expected. With 5 named storms, the season is already off to an active start. There is a lot of time between now and November 30, the official end of hurricane season. While hurricane season forecasts can be wrong, NOAA officials state an 85% chance of a busy season. In May, the chance was listed at just 65% confidence, but July 2008 was the third most active July since 1886.

Six named storms have formed already this hurricane season. Tropical Storm Arthur affected the Yucatan Peninsula in late May. Hurricane Bertha was the longest-lived July storm on record. Tropical Storm Cristobal skirted the North Carolina coastline. Hurricane Dolly made landfall in Texas on July 25. And on August 5, Tropical Storm Edouard struck the upper Texas coast. Tropical storm Fay also caused massive problems with flooding in Florida, Georgia, Haiti, and more. So, the season has been busy so far.