By The News Service of Florida <\/p>\n
More than two months before the start of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, the meteorological company AccuWeather on Wednesday predicted 11- to 16 named storms, with four to seven reaching hurricane strength.<\/p>\n
Considered lower than the average in recent years, AccuWeather\u2019s outlook anticipates some tropical development prior to the June 1 start of the six-month season due to \u201cexceptionally warm waters.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if it\u2019s expected to be a slightly below average hurricane season, we can still see major hits across the United States,\u201d AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Expert Alex DaSilva said in a release.<\/p>\n
AccuWeather, one of several outfits that will release outlooks for the season, included in its forecast the potential for three to five of the named systems to directly affect the U.S.<\/p>\n
Last year, the Atlantic produced 13 named storms, just meeting predictions of 13 to 19 storms. Also, the season had five hurricanes, with four reaching Category 3 and three reaching the most severe Category 5.<\/p>\n
None of them, though, made a direct landfall in Florida or the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From 2022 to 2024, Florida took direct hits from six hurricanes, including four that were Category 3 or stronger.<\/p>\n
The AccuWeather forecast includes the potential development of El Ni\u00f1o weather phenomenon conditions, which would limit tropical activity to near or below historical average levels,\u00a0especially in the second\u00a0half\u00a0and climatological peak\u00a0of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By The News Service of Florida More than two months before the start of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-206853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}