00:00Could Florida's drought actually make hurricane season worse? I know it sounds backwards, but the answer might surprise you.
00:05Now, Florida's dry stretch this spring was not random. High pressure sat over the southeast for months, keeping rain and
00:11moisture away.
00:12But here's the key. How dry it's been here doesn't determine hurricane season.
00:16In fact, our hurricane expert Alex Da Silva says there's no correlation between the two, and history even backs that
00:21up.
00:21In 1998, Florida started the year in one of its worst droughts, but the hurricane season still turned active.
00:27Da Silva says that shift from El Nino to La Nina is what mattered most, and it was La Nina
00:32that caused the season to be active, not the drought.
00:34But Florida's drought does still matter. It can make storm impacts worse.
00:38Dry conditions can weaken tree roots, making them more likely to fall in strong winds.
00:42And when heavy rain hits, it can run off instead of being absorbed, which increases flood risk.
00:47So bottom line, drought is not going to protect Florida from hurricanes, because every year, it just takes one.
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