My Safe Florida Home Program. To help Floridians identify how they can strengthen their homes against hurricanes and to reduce hurricane damage exposure in our state, the Florida Comprehensive Hurricane Damage Mitigation Program is offering free home inspections by qualified hurricane mitigation inspectors to eligible homeowners.

Social Security Check Recipients
The U.S. Department of the Treasury advises Social Security check recipients who live in hurricane prone areas to switch to direct deposit to ensure seamless delivery of their federal benefit payments in the days following a hurricane or severe weather event. People who receive federal benefits by check in the mail can switch to direct deposit by calling the Go Direct helpline at 1.800.333.1795 (English and Espanol), signing up online at http://www.godirect.org/ (English) and http://www.directoasucuenta.org/ (en Espanol) or visiting their local bank or credit union.

Click Here for a list of Broward Gas Stations and Supermarkets equipped with generators.

GENERAL INFO

Hurricane Season
The Atlantic hurricane season is officially from June 1 to November 30. Hurricanes have occurred outside of these six months, but these dates were selected to encompass over 97% of tropical activity. The Atlantic basin shows a very peaked season from August through October, with 78% of the tropical storm days, 87% of the minor (Saffir-Simpson Scale categories 1 and 2) hurricane days, and 96% of the major (Saffir-Simpson categories 3, 4 and 5) hurricane days occurring. Maximum activity is in early to mid September. Once in a few years there may be a hurricane occurring “out of season” -- primarily in May or December.

Tropical Climate
TROPICAL DEPRESSION An organized system of clouds and thunderstorms with a defined surface circulation and maximum sustained winds* of 38 mph (33kt**) or less.

TROPICAL STORM An organized system of strong thunderstorms with a defined surface circulation and maximum sustained winds of 39-73 mph (34-63 kt).

HURRICANE An intense tropical weather system of strong thunderstorms with a well-defined surface circulation and maximum sustained winds of 74 mph (64 kt) or higher. In other parts of the world, hurricane is synonymous for typhoons and cyclones.

Forecasts
It is advised to monitor the weather frequently and to heed the advice of local officials during hurricane season. Tropical systems can speed up, change direction and intensify without warning. Several local news stations as well as national weather services offer E-mail notifications by subscribing to their services.

The following terms are used by weather forecasters to describe the strength and probability/proximity of a storm from hitting a specific destination:

HURRICANE WATCH A hurricane may strike your area within 24 - 48 hours

HURRICANE WARNING A hurricane is expected to strike your area within 24 hours

The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is a 1-5 rating based on the hurricane’s present intensity. Wind speed is the determining factor in the scale.