Hurricane forecasters are keeping an eye on the progress of Isaias. The system grew to tropical storm strength on Wednesday, and is expected to be a hurricane when it reaches anywhere form Gulfport in Mississippi, to Mobile, to Panama City Beach in Florida. The latest forecast has landfall expected sometime Friday Night. Before Isaias formed, APR student reporter John Underwood talked with three experts for tips on how to get ready for this year’s hurricane season. One special note—John’s story talks about preparing for evacuation.
EDITOR'S Note— Local leaders in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach in Alabama are advising residents of low lying areas to voluntarily evacuate. In Florida, the Associated Press is reporting that some residents of RV parks in Gulf County and Okaloosa County (Zones A and B) are under a mandatory evacuation order.
If you want to talk about hurricanes and how to survive them, then Brandon Black, Mike Evans, and Richard Scott are good to talk to. Black is a forecaster for the National Weather Service. Evans is with Mobile County Emergency Management, and Scott is a veteran weatherman for WVUA 23 News. We started our conversation on what kind of hurricane season 2026 will be.
“Yeah, so a lot of it's tied to what we call the El Nino Oscillation in the Pacific,” said Brandon Black. He’s with the National Weather Service.
“You probably hear a lot about El Nino and La Nina, and typically when El Nino forms, it usually correlates with a lesser active, less active Atlantic season and more active Pacific season during that kind of time frame, and we're expecting a relatively strong El Nino event has already started to shape up in the Pacific, and we're expecting that to continue through hurricane season,” Black said.
Whether having a strong El Nino is a good thing or a bad thing depends on which ocean is nearby where you live. Black says this year could be challenging for people living in California, Oregon, and Washington State.
“And a good example that we like to look at is the last time we saw an El Nino around this strength,” Black said. “What we're potentially expecting was 1997, and we obviously had Hurricane Danny here in Mobile, Mobile and Baldwin County that caused significant impacts to southern Alabama and some of these areas. So it's you know all it takes is one hurricane.”
So for the sake of this story, Black specializes in what's coming during the 2026 hurricane season. Mike Evans is with Mobile County Emergency Management. Part of his job is to help the public prepare for hurricanes. He says the year 2020 was a whopper.
“Just for a side note, that happened to be a COVID year, so we were dealing with COVID-19 and two hurricanes,” said Evans.
Hurricane Sally hit Mobile and Baldwin counties. Then a month later, Hurricane Zeta came into Louisiana and turned almost due east and stayed a hurricane over Mississippi and Lower Alabama. That was on top of people being warned to wear masks, wash their hands, and stay six feet apart due to COVID. Evan says that was unusual compared to what he normally does this time of year.
“You know, you'll hear me prior to a storm saying, ‘Hey, this thing's headed our way. If you live in the following hurricane storm surge zones, you might consider where you're going to evacuate to,’” said Evans.
If a hurricane hits Mobile County or the Eastern Shore, residents basically head north on either Interstate 65 or Highways 43 and 45. Evans says his office can call the state for extra help regarding the interstate.
“They're the ones who can discuss if they want to do a reverse lane of I-65, which impacts evacuation,” he said. “And so it is, it is not done in a vacuum. We have a lot of discussion between the two counties and the state. You know, the governor and the governor's staff on how this should happen and what we should do as far as timing.”
Another issue is that hurricanes don't hit the coast all the time. People who go through them appear to know it's a good idea to have emergency kits ready with food, water, medications, and to have an evacuation route planned out. Evan says that's for veterans of hurricane hits.
“You know, as you move through time, you have individuals who the last storm we had were teenagers or kids, and they were not the decision makers. Well, let's just say a decades went by, and now they're the adult with a family, and so you know I I get concerned because you know maybe they have no context of what this actually means,” said Evans.
“So, in 2004, we had a major hurricane, Ivan,” said Richard Scott. There are professional TV weather forecasters who inform the public when bad storms hit. Richard Scott knows this firsthand as Chief Meteorologist with WVUA23-TV in Tuscaloosa. When the 2011 tornado outbreak took place, he was on the air when his own home was destroyed. Scott says even though he broadcasts out of Tuscaloosa, that doesn't mean hurricanes like Ivan can cause a problem.
“That was in 2004, and that hurricane maintained hurricane status as far north as Uniontown along Highway 80, and it was a strong tropical storm all the way through the Birmingham metro area up into Georgia, so this one maintained a lot of intensity. We had widespread tree and power line damage over Alabama,” said Scott.
Hurricanes can stay powerful long after landfall. Hugo is one that weather watchers like to talk about. This 1989 storm kept hurricane-force winds 100 miles inland after it made landfall in South Carolina. Scott says the threat of a storm like Ivan in 2004 means his viewers need to keep an eye out for what goes on after the landfall.
“A hurricane is much more broad than that. It has a very large area of wind and heavy rainfall, and more of that is preparedness and just getting people ready. To you know what they could expect if a hurricane makes landfall. You know what's it going to be like on the Gulf Coast. A lot of people have interest along the Alabama Gulf Coast, the Panhandle, Florida. So, what's this storm going to be like for those areas? Will it be an inland impact? So we'll have power outages. Will there be flooding issues?” Scott said.
Again, the forecast for the rest of the 2026 season is for below normal activity.
