Hurricane season officially begins June 1, although we did have a named storm in the colder waters of the Atlantic back in April.

Brian McClure wrote a great blog discussing whether or not it even was a tropical storm.

This year, there are some changes in some of the information that you may see during a hurricane season. Changes range from some small changes in how graphics are made, to a whole new set of advisories that will be made available.

There are 2 significant new advisories that are available for the 2017 season. Whether or not they are used will be determined by the situation. For decades, we have seen Hurricane/Tropical Storm Watches and Warnings. They have been fine-tuned over the years, but have generally been the same.

We all know, that storm surge is an extremely dangerous element of a land falling or land interacting tropical storm or hurricane, so now, Storm Surge Watches and Warnings will be available. This is incredibly useful in the Gulf of Mexico (especially the Northern Gulf), where surge conditions can occur far to the east of the center of a storm. That means that a storm surge threat may exist OUTSIDE of a tropical storm or hurricane watch/warning area.

Having this information will allow people in those coastal/surge prone areas to remain on heightened alert and readiness. The distinction between the Storm Surge Watch and the Storm Surge Warning will be the same as the difference between the other tropical watches and warnings.

Storm Surge Watch: "The possibility of life-threatening inundation from rising water moving inland from the shoreline somewhere within the specified area, generally within 48 hours, in association with an ongoing or potential tropical cyclone, a subtropical cyclone, or a post-tropical cyclone."

Storm Surge Warning: "The danger of life-threatening inundation from rising water moving inland from the shoreline somewhere within the specified area, generally within 36 hours, in association with an ongoing or potential tropical cyclone, a subtropical cyclone, or a post-tropical cyclone."

The next significant new development will be the issuance of advisories, watches, warnings, etc. for "Potential Tropical Cyclones." In the past, a tropical system had to be formally declared as, at least a tropical depression before advisories would be issued. For a system in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, this was no big deal. But, sometimes storms can develop very close to a coastline giving residents very little time to prepare. Now, with the advancement in computer model technology, there is a higher degree of confidence in tropical forecasting to allow the issuance of watches/warnings, and tropical cyclone advisories for a system that "hasn't formed yet." This will give the residents more time to prepare for a storm.

In 2007, Hurricane Humberto made landfall on the Texas Coast only 16 hours after being declared a tropical depression. Computer models and satellite info had been indicating for days that something of significance was forming or was going to form in the NW Gulf of Mexico. Had the "Potential Tropical Cyclone" advisories been around in 2007, watches and warnings could have been hoisted a day or more in advance.

Finally, in case you are wondering, here is the list of the storm names for the 2017 hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin:

Arlene

Bret

Cindy

Don

Emily

Franklin

Gert

Harvey

Irma

Jose

Katia

Lee

Maria

Nate

Ophelia

Philippe

Rina

Sean

Tammy

Vince

Whitney

As is the case every year, Bay News 9 will begin the Tropical Update on June 1 at :49 past each hour, every hour, every day through November 30.