National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office

In 2009, the State of Texas – in fact the entire Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico region – flipped the switch from 2008; only one cyclone, Tropical Storm Ana, impacted the northern Gulf coast from Alabama to the Florida panhandle. While 2009’s quiet, driven by a combination of El Niño and unfavorable atmospheric teleconnections leading to persistent, hostile shear in the Atlantic Basin, was a needed break after a busy 2008, we can never let a stormless season dictate what will happen in future years.

In 2008, Texas experienced what the State of Florida had become accustomed to earlier this decade: A very busy Hurricane Season. Four storms, ranging from Edouard’s light touch to Ike’s deadly hammer, affected millions of Texans living near the coast, from the Lower Rio Grande Valley to the Beaumont and Port Arthur area. When the waters cleared and the debris was removed, an estimated $20 billion or more in damage was realized, along with more than 100 fatalities directly or indirectly from the storms. Hurricane Dolly provided a much needed wake up call to the Rio Grande Valley, after a number of near misses and a general complacency since Beulah made the last direct hit on the main population centers back in 1967. Flooding rains exposed a patchwork of poor drainage locations from Cameron and Willacy through Hidalgo and Starr Counties. Category 1 sustained winds raked South Padre Island, knocking out power for up to two weeks and leaving a mess of debris that effectively halted the normally busy mid summer resort season.

What will the 2010 season bring? No matter what the forecast, it only takes one landfalling hurricane to make a season memorable. Preparedness is the key to surviving any hurricane season, and we hope the following information, along with that in the Texas Hurricane Guide, Rio Grande Valley Edition will help residents of the Rio Grande Valley and Deep South Texas to make smart decisions well before any storms arrive on our shores. What you do now may well save your life, your family, and protect your property from the perils of hurricanes, this year and any year.