Hurricane Season

AAA and IBHS Insurance experts offer some guidance to help residents prepare.

Colorado State University’s 2026 Atlantic hurricane season outlook calls for below-normal activity across the Atlantic basin due to a likely transition into an El Niño.

A free Community Conversation on Hurricane Preparedness event is plannedfrom 9a.m.to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 11 at Riverview High School inSarasota.

Pre-season predictions on the number of hurricanes that will make landfall in Florida this year are certain to differ among the leading tropical storm forecasters, figures that get refined and reissued as the season unfolds. One thing that will now be a constant is the National Hurricane Center’s addition of more watches and warnings on its familiar “cone of uncertainty,” which has been used for more than two decades. It's a teardrop-shaped offering of the most educated guesses available about the direction of a hurricane over its next few days.

AccuWeather is forecasting fewer tropical storms than in recent years, in large part due to wind shear arriving with an El Niño expected later in the season. At the same time, they worry that record-warm Gulf waters may fuel hurricanes strong enough to overpower that wind shear

Sarasota County Capital Projects has made temporary repairs to Manasota Key Road and the road is now open to traffic.

With a judge slated to hear arguments this week, the state is trying to short-circuit constitutional challenges to a new law that blocks cities and counties from approving "more restrictive or burdensome" changes to growth plans.

Landscape and architecture experts from the University of Florida will be on Sanibel Island next month to discuss how to lessen tropical storm damage on barrier islands by using what nature offers and climate change, stronger storms, and the loss of mangroves and sand dunes can make flooding worse — and how residents can turn things around to lessen the impacts.

All three major forecasting institutions — AccuWeather, Colorado State University, and the National Weather Service, overpredicted total storm counts before the season, although all three correctly anticipated above-normal, major hurricane activity. But there will be no landfalling hurricanes in the U.S. in 2025

Middle-class families are struggling to afford insurance in southwest Florida. Realtors say a wave of foreclosures could be coming.