By Clint Thompson
Hurricane Helene’s trek through the Southeast last week serves as a reminder to specialty crop producers that the tropics remain very active. It is expected to stay that way for at least another month or so, says Pam Knox, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension agricultural climatologist.
“It’s a sign that the tropical season is not over. We have had seasons where it started out slow and everything popped at once,” Knox said. “It’s too early to let our guard down. We’ve had storms into November before.”
Helene made landfall late Thursday along Florida’s Big Bend Coast. It brought excessive rains and high winds that knocked out power and flooded fields and roads, in Florida and Georgia.
It is the latest in what has been a really odd storm season, according to Knox.
“We had all of that activity at the beginning. Almost every storm that we had made a landfall which is unusual,” Knox said. “Last year almost all of the storms went out to sea. The impacts have been pretty severe, even though we haven’t had many named storms yet. But we’re going into a more active phase.
“There’s another (storm) out in the eastern Atlantic Ocean right now that’s got a 70% chance of developing. Some of the early models were showing it coming all the way to the Gulf. The latest ones I looked at showed it’s a pretty good chance it’s going to turn to the north before it gets to us.”