Today is June 1, 2026 (as of the time of this writing, at least). You know what that means? Hurricane season 2026 has officially started! Here’s our question to you: Is your home and family ready for the next big storm to hit Florida?
If not, or if you’re unsure if you really need to get ready for the 2026 hurricane season, we thought we’d talk about what weather experts are saying about this year’s hurricane season and follow that up with some basic strategies for dealing with any potential storms:
What Can We Expect from Hurricane Season 2026?
Every hurricane season, warmer Atlantic water temperatures and favorable atmospheric conditions make large-scale cyclonic weather pattern formation (i.e., tropical storms and hurricanes) easier than the rest of the year.
This period of heightened hurricane activity is marked every year from the first of June through the thirtieth of November… or about half the year.
For hurricane season 2026, however, the year is marked by El Niño conditions. What does this mean?
What Is El Niño, and How Does It Affect Hurricane Season?
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) website, El Niño is defined as: “a warming of the ocean surface, or above-average sea surface temperatures, in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. The low-level surface winds, which normally blow from east to west along the equator… instead weaken or, in some cases, start blowing the other direction.”
How does Pacific Ocean activity affect weather in the Atlantic, where we are?
There’s a fairly simple explanation of the impact of El Niño by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), El Niño conditions in the Pacific create “stronger vertical wind shear and trade winds” that make hurricane formation more difficult in the Atlantic than normal. However, the risk of hurricanes in the Pacific increases during an El Niño.
That’s massively oversimplifying, but it describes the general effect well enough for regular conversation.
The strong vertical winds interfere with the formation of hurricanes, ripping them apart before they can finish forming. However, this doesn’t mean that hurricanes can’t form. It’s just more difficult for them to form.
La Niña conditions, on the other hand, have the opposite effect, causing weaker vertical wind shear and trade winds in the Atlantic, so more hurricanes form.
So, Will Hurricane Season 2026 Be Low Activity?
This is where the weather projections get a little difficult. Normally, El Niño means that hurricane formation will be somewhat suppressed in the Atlantic… However, the Atlantic is also experiencing warmer-than-normal water temperatures.
This is not the first time that the Atlantic has had warmer than average temperatures during an El Niño. As reported by USA Today in their article interviewing different forecasters about their 2026 hurricane season projections:
“Just two weeks into the 1972 hurricane season, a tropical depression formed near the Yucatán Peninsula. When it moved ashore in the Florida Panhandle just four days later as a weak Hurricane Agnes, it became – and remains – one of the costliest storms ever to strike the U.S. mainland.”
During that year, Agnes formed extremely early in the season during El Niño conditions. This is because, as noted by Matthew Rosencrans, the lead seasonal forecaster for the NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center in his discussion with USA Today: “El Niño has the biggest impacts on Atlantic hurricanes that form deep in the tropics, so that can mean fewer storms that take days to march across the Atlantic from Africa. But in the Gulf, there may be more favorable pockets for storms to form.”
In other words, while we can expect fewer hurricanes to form in total, and the ones that form in the Atlantic’s waters will likely form closer to Africa and slowly make their way over here, there is an increased risk of formation within the Gulf during odd times of the year.
So, while Florida’s east coast has a greater chance of facing fewer storms than average, Floridians on the west coast of the state may have more to worry about and less time to react to a hurricane’s formation.
As always, we won’t know for sure how many hurricanes will form in the Gulf this year. However, if one does, it’s important for homeowners to be prepared for it!
What You Can Do to Prepare for Sudden Storms During the 2026 Hurricane Season
Learn (or Double-Check) Your Evacuation Zone
First, and foremost, familiarize yourself with your county’s most current hurricane evacuation zone maps. This helps you better understand how ‘at risk’ your home is during a hurricane and lets you know if you’re required to evacuate when a hurricane warning is issued for your area.
Hurricane evacuation zones are usually ranked from A to E or F in descending order of risk. Zones rated A are typically at the highest risk of severe damage or loss of life in the area if a major hurricane hits the area (even some tropical storms might be a significant danger if they linger in the area long enough).
Zones designated E or below are usually only at risk during the most severe of hurricanes.
If you live in a designated hurricane evacuation zone and an order for Zone A homes to evacuate is issued, but you live in Zone B, you might still want to get ready to go, even if the evacuation order hasn’t been issued for you yet.
You can find evacuation zone information at the following links:
- Hillsborough County’s Hurricane Evacuation Assessment Tool (HEAT).
- Pinellas County’s Know Your Zone Tool.
- Pasco County’s Geographic Information System (GIS) Evacuation Zone Map.
It’s important to check these maps at the start of each hurricane season, and again when hurricanes form. Why? Because, the designated evacuation zones may be updated from time to time based on the NOAA’s latest data regarding hurricane risks.
What was a Zone E or F region one year might become a Zone D or C region the next (or vice versa), which might mean that a hurricane evacuation warning might apply to you when you didn’t think it did.
Prepare a Hurricane Emergency Kit
Gather some basic supplies for dealing with a major hurricane, both for if you plan to shelter in place with the possible loss of electricity and if you need to evacuate.
Some basic items to include in your emergency kit include, but may not be limited to:
- Non-perishable food items that can be prepared or eaten without access to a working stove or other cookware (canned food, MREs, etc.).
- Bottled water for drinking (at least a gallon per person per day).
- Medical supplies (first aid kits, bandages/gauze, disinfectant, necessary medications, etc.).
- Radios/walkie talkies (in case cellular service is disrupted).
- Pet food for your pets.
- Spare clothing (3+ sets of changes of clothes).
- Flashlights.
- Batteries/portable chargers for electronic devices.
- Blankets.
- Tools (knife, hammer, wrench, screwdrivers, etc.).
Having these items on hand can make weathering the storm or taking care of emergencies during an evacuation much easier.
Clean Up the Yard of Loose Objects
One of the biggest hazards to your home during a hurricane is random debris being picked up and thrown by the wind. Objects that are especially large for their overall weight are at the biggest risk of being carried off by a hurricane-strength wind.
So, before a hurricane watch or warning is even issued, take an inventory of the items in your front and back yards to identify any furniture or other items that might get literally airlifted by a hurricane, such as:
- Free-standing basketball hoops.
- Trampolines.
- Kiddie pools.
- Yard toys.
- Tables.
- Lawn care tools (mowers, shovels, wheelbarrows, etc.).
- Lightweight portable sheds.
These and other items should be brought inside at the first sign of a hurricane affecting your area.
That way, you can reduce the total number of missiles being thrown at your home (and avoid losing your stuff during the storm)!
Add Wind Mitigation Protection to Your Home
One of the best ways to protect your home long term is to make wind mitigation improvements to it well before any storms are on the proverbial horizon. Doing things like adding fasteners that hold your roof to the building frame more securely or installing impact-rated windows that can take extreme pressure and impacts without shattering can go a long way towards keeping your home intact in the face of a major storm.
Of course, as with any major home improvement project, it’s important to get these kinds of upgrades done by experienced professionals who know what they’re doing (and the ins and outs of the Florida Building Code).
If you want to ensure that harsh hurricane conditions stay outside of your home where they belong, reach out to Karoly Windows & Doors! We’ll send an impact window expert out to your home for an in-house consultation and assessment.
Get a walkthrough of your impact window options and how you can best protect your home from the risk of hurricane damage from a dedicated expert as soon as possible!
