{"id":684698,"date":"2026-05-21T18:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/684698\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T18:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:45:10","slug":"officials-forecast-below-average-hurricane-season-but-stress-it-only-takes-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/684698\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials forecast below-average hurricane season, but stress &#8216;it only takes one&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Canada\u2019s hurricane forecasters are expecting a quieter year for hurricanes, but say people should still be prepared for the possibility of an impactful storm.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Hurricane Centre released its 2026 hurricane outlook on Thursday afternoon, aligning with the U.S.-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in calling for eight to 14 named storms, with only three to six strengthening to hurricane status.<\/p>\n<p>Officials say a developing El Nino in the Pacific will have an affect on the hurricane season, which officially begins on June 1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen that water in the Pacific is warmer, that creates more wind shear down wind, which in this case would be over the tropical Atlantic,\u201d explained meteorologist Bob Robichaud. \u201cWhen we have more wind shear, we tend to have fewer hurricanes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As for how the forecast could translate for impacts on Canadian interests, forecasters lean on about 40 years of data, from the inception of the Canadian Hurricane Centre in Dartmouth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn average, about 35 to 40 per cent of the storms that form in the Atlantic find their way into our response zone,\u201d Robichaud said. \u201cTypically, maybe one or two would have at least minor impacts, with respect to waves or rain, or perhaps even more significant impacts over our land areas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the forecast calling for fewer storms, Robichaud stressed that people should still be prepared for the possibility of a storm making its way into the region.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe only had one landfalling hurricane in 2022, and that was Fiona,\u201d he said. \u201cWe say every year \u2018it only takes one\u2019 and that\u2019s a perfect example of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The hurricane season extends until the end of November, but the bulk of activity typically occurs in August, September and October.<\/p>\n<p>\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n<p>Add CityNews Halifax as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=halifax.citynews.ca\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"add-trusted-source-badge\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778170930_778_google-trusted-badge.png\" alt=\"Add as a preferred source on Google\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s hurricane forecasters are expecting a quieter year for hurricanes, but say people should still be prepared for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-684698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}