I normally take hurricane season with a grain of salt

[misanthrope]

I realize long-range forecasts are difficult to formulate and even more difficult to make entirely accurate. That said, there's already a concerning development for this season.

This month's Gulf of Mexico loop current is similar to the one in May 2005, the most active in Atlantic hurricane season history. There were four Category 5 storms: Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/bad-news-2022-hurricane-season-123453675.html

[Tommy Carcetti]

1. We all remember Katrina. I lived through Wilma.

The eye passed right over us. I watched it chew up various trees, shrubs, pool screens, etc. with my own eyes.

[iscooterliberally]

7. I lived through Wilma too.

I remember looking across the street between the houses and seeing the lake behind them. The 'rain' was coming up out of the lake and going straight up into the sky. We were lucky to live near a power grid station and got our power back in less than 48 hours. Our neighbors a few blocks away went without for about 2 weeks. We lived in Sunrise back then. I've been in South Florida since the early 70s and always prepare as best I can.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

2. As hot as it has been down in Texas, no doubt Gulf waters are WARMER too.

Which fuels hurricanes that enter the Gulf of Mexico.

Effects of Climate Change? You betcha!

[Chainfire]

3. Michael wiped out 75% of the trees on my 30 acre property and I am 75 miles inland.

Tree farms to the immediate West of me had 100% destruction. I have lived in Florida for 68 of my 70 years and I have never seen anything like it. It took nearly a week with a chain saw and truck to cut a drivable path from my house to the street. I worked in Miami after hurricane Andrew and the wind damage was very similar. The only reason that Michael was brief national news is because it mainly hit rural areas, and we don't matter much in the grand scheme of things. One of these storms is going to hit a major metropolitan area in Florida soon. It is almost inevitable, that is why insurance companies are abandoning the state in droves. (Or raising rates to drive the buyers away; the same thing) I have built a "hard room" inside my house as an Alamo position. I just hope that I get better results in my "fortress" than Davy Crocket and Jim Bowie did.

You can build a home to stand up to a major hurricane, but those embedded tornadoes respect no man's construction abilities.

By the way, when you hear people talk about a really bad storm sounding like a train going down the tracks. It is literal. I stepped out on the lee side of my house during the storm for a few seconds, and it sounded just like a freight train rolling down the tracks, with the accompaniment of large trees snapping like toothpicks. It was not a noise that your normally associate with wind, it was a constant roar. I was highly impressed by the power of the storm.

[malaise]

4. Important OP

A few folks have been communicating about the temperatures.
Be prepared to evacuate if necessary.
Rec

[DFW]

5. If I still lived in North America

I'd be taking hurricane season with a grain of salt and a house in a flood-free area of Vermont

[misanthrope]

8. Bingo. Were it solely up to me,

we would have relocated decades ago. My wife is native, though, and despite what she said before we were married, she can't stand the idea of not living here. Of course, she also gets very upset when I say that her family's longtime beach house on a barrier island south of here is destined to be in the Gulf, maybe before the end of our lives. I can't imagine harboring that kind of willful ignorance.

[Scrivener7]

6. I used to also. But now I have lost loved ones to storms.

I prepare when storms are forecast, and I don't go out.

Life is different now than it used to be.

[misanthrope]

9. My preferred option is to evacuate

I need the electricity to keep my expensive medicines viable, to run the air conditioner and oxygen concentrator. There's also the added bonus that just being away from this region feels like a mental respite of sorts.