Last year I did not think a serious hurricane would bother Florida overly much and unless one considered Wilma to be a real nusance we did not have a serious hurricane. The news media was less than reliable here in Central Florida as to what was happening with Wilma to our south.
This year I am feeling a dread of at least one of our Gulf of Mexico storms putting a world of hurt on the Florida Peninsula this year. The reasons are not noticeably different from 2004. Fireweather and drying winds have placed us very vulnerable to sudden flooding with trees and sinksholes etc. I have also noticed an unusual critter activity this spring. We have some kind of flies that are really a nusance and the store repellents are not even making them wet, much less killing them. My birds are laying eggs about once every two weeks or more often. Its like they are stocking up on family members. I don't care how many numbers of hurricanes form, it only takes the one to finish off the job that was started by the 3 muskateers in 2004. I keep saying to any one who comments about the Northeast being in the line of hurricane landfall this year, most cold fronts dip down from the west, into the Gulf and then ride back up to the Northeast. There is nothing to prevent a hurricane from doing that either. Florida is not wide enough to slow a Katrina size storm down at all. Especially if the storm takes on subtropical characteristics and does not respond to cooler water temperatures or the position of the Gulf stream. Numbers of storms? 19/5major one or two Cat 5 where and when I don't know. All I know for sure is that Texas and Lousianna started off pretty dry last year. Florida is pretty dry this year and very much more windy than I seem to remember.