Tropical Storm Alex is likely to become the first hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season, according to the National Hurricane Center, and experts expect many more storms this year.
Tropical Storm Alex's potential track (Source: National Hurricane Center)
NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, for one, expects an active to extremely active season, according to a late May statement.
The center projects a 70 percent probability of 14 to 23 named storms, which have top winds of at least 39 mph, the statement says.
Of those storms, eight to 14 could become hurricanes (with top winds of at least 74 mph), and three to seven of those hurricanes could be major ones (with top winds of at least 111 mph), according to the statement.
In New Jersey, a hurricane hasn't come ashore since 1903, according to the hurricane center.
So, could this be the year of the Big One in the Garden State?
The aftermath of the 1944 hurricane on Long Beach Island (file photo courtesy of the New Jersey State Police Museum)
To track tropical storms and hurricanes and learn more about them and how to prepare for a potentially devastating visit, here's my annual list of websites that I've compiled over the years:
- National Hurricane Center links to other tropical cyclone websites.
- National Weather Service Mount Holly office.
- New Jersey Office of Emergency Management family preparedness for hurricanes and tropical storms.
- New Jersey coastal evacuation, hurricane storm surge and hurricane tracking maps.
- National Hurricane Center storm surge simulations for the Jersey Shore.
- National Hurricane Center storm surge information.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency hurricane information.
- National Ocean Service storm surge and tidal information.
- U.S. Census Bureau hurricane and tropical storm information.
- Stevens Institute of Technology New Jersey Coastal Monitoring Network.
- Rutgers University Coastal Ocean Observation Lab.
- The Weather Channel Hurricane Central.
- AccuWeather.com Hurricane Home.
- Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist at Rutgers University.
- New Jersey Hurricane Evacuation Study draft maps and data.
- Monmouth County Coastal Evacuation Route Improvement Study.
- National Hurricane Survival Initiative.
- Institute for Business & Home Safety.
- Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing.
