Bryan Norcross answers your questions about hurricane season

FOX Weather kicked off ‘Hurricane HQ Week’ on Monday with a live Q&A session with our hurricane specialist, Bryan Norcross, who answered a range of questions about this year’s hurricane season. 

NEW YORK – FOX Weather kicked off “Hurricane HQ Week” on Monday with a live Q&A session with Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross, who answered a range of questions about this year’s hurricane season. 

Why was Sandy called Superstorm Sandy? Is that still a hurricane?

Norcross, who coined the “superstorm” name himself, explained the complex meteorological scenario. 

“Sandy was a really unusual storm,” he said. “It was late October, and it came from the South. It was a hurricane, but it started interacting with northern type systems as it got farther north.”

Norcross said the National Hurricane Center (NHC) had initially forecast Sandy to transition into a nor’easter. However, Sandy defied typical classifications. 

“The tropical system was still intact inside the nor’easter,” Norcross noted, meaning it maintained tropical characteristics even as it moved into a colder environment. 

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Superstorm Sandy was an entirely different storm when its effects were felt in New England.

Norcross famously decided against calling it a “post-tropical cyclone,” explaining that term made it sound like it was over.

“And there was nothing that was going to be over,” he added. “The winds had not come down, and the storm surge was coming.” 

When would be the first potential hurricane and where?

Typically, we don’t get a hurricane until August, according to Norcross.

“Now we have had hurricanes in July,” he added. “Last year, we had Beryl that formed in July, and that was a freaky storm because it formed so far south that it missed all the hostileness that was just to the north.”

While rare, Norcross said, hurricanes have happened in June as well.

NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter aircraft flew 19 missions during Hurricane Milton over nearly 100 hours of flight time. This NOAA video shows some mission highlights as the crews collected critical forecasting data. 

Will it be an El Niño or a La Niña year?

An El Niño generally tends to hold down the number of storms because the upper-level winds become more hostile, Norcross said. While La Niña generally boosts the number of storms, especially if it is a strong La Niña.

Currently, the Pacific is in a “neutral phase.”

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The status of whether the world is being impacted by an El Nino or a La Nina is determined by water temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific. (NOAA)

Norcross cautioned against relying solely on El Niño/La Niña for hurricane season predictions in a neutral year. 

“We have plenty of neutral years that have been super busy hurricane seasons, and then we have some that have really been quite quiet,” he said. “So the point is that this does not drive the hurricane season moving into a neutral year. So it’s other factors that will affect how busy it is.”

Why are certain hurricane names retired?

According to Norcross, some hurricane names are permanently retired from rotation. This practice stems from respect for those impacted by devastating storms.

“The idea is that you’re in South Florida and you talk about Andrew, for a certain number of people, that brings up really bad feelings,” Norcross explained, referencing the catastrophic Hurricane Andrew of 1992. “Having another Andrew would simply conjure those painful memories.”

Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross has got you covered to answer your questions as the FOX Weather Q&A is LIVE.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) oversees this retirement process. It’s largely based on the emotional and practical needs of the countries most affected by a severe storm. By avoiding the reuse of names linked to widespread destruction, the WMO prevents further distress.