2023 Hurricane season begins

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - June 1st marks the beginning of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season. Chief Meteorologist Wade Hampton would like to remind you that it does not matter how many storms occur in any one season, it only takes one hitting our area to make it a bad season.

NOAA, the parent organization of the National Hurricane Center, and Colorado State University issue seasonal forecasts for hurricane season. This year both organizations are forecasting a near-normal hurricane season. The average number of storms in a normal year are as follows: 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes.

While these seasonal forecasts can provide a baseline on how active a season may be, they can NOT tell you when or where any storm may occur. This means no matter what you need to be prepared to act each season.

Here is list of storm names for this season, and you may notice some sound familiar. The list of storm. names is reused every 6 years, and this year is also the same list of names used in 2005. Catastrophic storms are removed and a new name replaces that. And you will notice that Rita was replaced with Rina.

One of the biggest decisions you may have to make is whether or not to stay or evacuate. And with that in mind now is the time to prepare for that what-if scenario. It is always better to plan ahead and know where you might go if a storm threatens Southwest Louisiana. If possible make contact with friends or relatives in other parts of the country and then you would have a safe place to go.

If you decide to stay home during a hurricane you should have at least a 7 day supply of necessities; including food, water, medicine, etc. And remember you should plan to be self-sufficient for at least 7 days too, that means no electricity, no internet, no phone service.

The entire KPLC First Alert weather team is here to monitor the tropics for you and will keep you informed if there are any threats to SWLA. Just like with Laura when the First Alert team warned that Laura could be stronger than the official forecast days ahead of the storm, we are here to protect you and your family with our First Alert Forecast. Now is a great time to make sure you have our weather app downloaded too, we can send you detailed information directly to the app anytime day or night. Click HERE to download the app.