ORLANDO, Fla. — It’s that time of the year again. The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season is here, and after a tough one for Florida in 2024, Central Floridians are keenly aware of the potential threats.

Debby, Helene and Milton all caused damage across our area. 

Hurricane Debby passed far to the west of Central Florida, but strong rain and wind gusts from its outer bands left some significant impacts behind.

Hurricane Helene made landfall in Perry on September 26, with winds of 140 mph at its peak. It was the strongest storm to ever make landfall there. Onshore winds drove six to eight feet of storm surge in some parts of the Tampa Bay area that caused a lot of flooding and damage to the coastline. 

Hurricane Milton struck just two weeks later, spinning up damaging winds and some strong tornadoes throughout southeastern Florida. Milton would become one of the strongest hurricanes on record in the Atlantic Basin, reaching Category 5 intensity in the Gulf on October 7 with winds peaking at 180 mph. Two days later, Milton would make landfall on October 9 at 8:30 p.m. near Siesta Key as a Category 3 storm with winds of 115mph.

The back-to-back storms wreaked havoc on neighborhoods across the region, and in some areas, long-term recovery efforts are still ongoing.

The roof of the Tropicana Field is damaged the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the region, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

2025 Hurricane Season Forecast

As we begin to prepare for the upcoming season, it’s good to have an idea about what we could be dealing with. Earlier this year, Colorado State University released their yearly forecast and they are expecting 17 named storms, 9 of those storms becoming hurricanes and 4 of those reaching major hurricane intensity (Category 3+).

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its outlook on May 22nd. It calls for an above normal season this year with 13-19 named storms, 6-10 becoming hurricanes and 3-5 reaching Category 3+.

Of course, it only takes one storm to turn lives upside down.

Hurricane Helene approaches landfall on Florida's west coast (NOAA)

Plan ahead and stock up

Now is a great time to create your hurricane kit or stock up one you may already have. You don't want to wait for a storm to get a name because all eyes will be on the tropics. As the storm approaches, store shelves could empty. So, it’s best to buy everything you’ll need — and want — to have on hand way ahead of time. You don’t want to be caught trying to stock up last minute.

Here's a list of all the basics:

Protect your home

When a storm is forecast to affect Central Florida, it's not a good time to find out your most expensive possession isn't protected. Contact your insurance company before an emergency to make sure you are covered if a storm strikes.

Protecting your home and its contents is more than just a financial exercise. It's physical. Before a tropical storm or hurricane storms across Central Florida, homeowners should take several simple steps.

Rise above the threat

For some homeowners in flood-prone areas, last year’s double hurricane hit — on top of countless previous encounters with floodwaters — was more than an enough impetus for action.

A woman in New Smyrna Beach is elevating her home to rise above floodwaters (Jeff Allen/Spectrum News)

In New Smyrna Beach, Ryanne Thacker told Spectrum News 13 she made a big decision to replace her home with help from Volusia County's Transform 386 program. 

When it's finished, her new home will be more than three feet higher than the old one.

“The biggest lift off my chest I’ve ever had probably, not worrying about when it rains and every single time I’m going to get water in my bedroom, the back room and all that,” she said.

Thacker's storm struggles aren't over yet, though. She said FEMA is currently insuring her home, but that coverage expires in a year. She's now searching for a policy for her new, elevated home.

(Jeff Allen/Spectrum News)

Ins and outs of property insurance

Following the 2024 hurricane season, Citizens Insurance reported its policy count dipped below one million for the first time in more than two years.

Florida’s property insurance provider of last resort, Citizens is meant to provide affordable coverage to homeowners who can’t find it anywhere else, or when their policies get dropped or non-renewed.

Citizens continues to be the largest holder of policies in the state, but since January 2024, it has transferred nearly a half million policies back to private companies 

Basically, the private insurers are dropping their riskier policies to trade them in some of the safer policies Citizens has on its books.

“We want the riskiest policies. We want companies that come in and take a look at our books. We want them to take policies that we can be confident they will keep for a long time,” Citizens spokesperson Michael Peltier said.

When asked about the ongoing practice, a Democratic state representative and a former Republican lawmaker both said the Legislature should look into it.

“I think there could be some legislative tweaks and fixes that could allow OIR to look at this a little bit more closely. If they do sense companies that are cherry-picking to look at how they segment their markets to bring more fair rates,” Scott Plakon (R-Former state rep.) said.

Former State Rep. Scott Plakon (R)

State Rep. Anna Eskamani called it "discriminatory to some degree."

"It continuously creates the opposite of a free market to some degree, where companies can pick and choose who they want to cover and then drop the folks without any notice while Citizens is carrying the brunt of potential high risk and expensive policies,” she said.

Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani poses out front of her office Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Know your zones

Your home is prepared and protected. Now, it's important to know if your home is in a Flood Zone or an Evacuation Zone. A Flood Zone indicates a property's risk for flooding from rain. But, Evacuation Zones are mapped by local emergency managers to identify areas that could be affected by storm surge.

To learn if you're in an evacuation zone, type your address in the map below:

Sensing the surge

It's a far deadlier threat than a hurricane's powerful wind and rain, and storm surge can be quite difficult to predict.

Prior to 2013, storm surge was responsible for nearly 49% of hurricane fatalities. Over the last 12 years, that number has dropped to 11%. 

In Crystal River, wary residents are keeping an eye out for storm surge as water pushed in toward U.S. 19. Driving rain covered roads but there was no report of damage as of Monday morning. (Spectrum Bay News 9/Chris McDonald)

Researchers have made significant improvements to the forecasting since the United States Geological Survey (USGS) began deploying sensors ahead of tropical systems since 2004.

This is more than just high watermarks after the fact. You’re getting recorded data every, it could be multiple times per second, which tells you a lot more information. 

“This is more than just high watermarks after the fact,” USGS hydrologist Patrick Ryan explained. “You’re getting recorded data every, it could be multiple times per second, which tells you a lot more information.”

Sensors were used for both Hurricanes Helene and Milton, but Hurricane Ian holds the record for the largest number of deployed sensors.

"I mean, you remember Ian. The track kept shifting, so we put out basically everything up the west coast from the Keys up to Tallahassee," Ryan said.

Sensors used by USGS to gather storm surge data (Mallory Nicholls/Spectrum News)

Flying into the eye

Major advancements in hurricane forecasting are happening above our heads, as well.

The United States has committed since 1943 to fly into hurricanes to provide the most accurate data possible on impending storms. While that mission remains the same, the technology that makes it possible has evolved.

Remote-controlled devices called dropsondes have been used to collect data from inside hurricanes for decades. (Zach Covey/Spectrum News)

“We’re always looking to the future and we always want to find a better, safer, cheaper way to do what we’re doing,” NOAA director of uncrewed systems Bill Mowitt said.

While NOAA’s fixed-wing Hurricane Hunter aircraft, like the P3 and Gulfstream IV, provide invaluable information, they have limits. These aircraft can’t fly into the lowest 5,000 feet of the storm — but drones can.

NOAA scientists have been launching drones from their aircraft for the past several seasons, and hope to break records for drone deployments this year.

There’s also a new high-altitude aircraft on the horizon. Starting next hurricane season, NOAA’s G550 will fly up to 50,000 feet above storms.

Image of the G550 NOAA expects to begin using next hurricane season (NOAA)

Download the Spectrum News App

Getting up-to-the-minute news can be paramount during a storm crisis, so be sure to download the Spectrum News app (iOS) (Google Play Store). With national reach, boots-on-the-ground local coverage and an unimpeachable weather team, we’ve got you covered all storm season long.

The Spectrum News App's Storm Season section is designed specifically to provide everything you need to know about hurricane season, from breaking weather reports to the latest news on what you'll need to prepare for and get through any worst-case scenario, who to contact in an emergency and more. Our dedicated Weather section provides even more comprehensive year-round coverage, including hour-by-hour forecasts and daily updates, facts and knowledge from hometown meteorologists with the experience and expertise residents have trusted for decades. Klystron 9's cutting-edge radar technology features hyperlocal data and temperature overlays, as well as long-range tropical system cone forecasts to help you plan ahead.

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