What to Expect This Hurricane Season

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

The Handy Item I Always Pack: The Trtl Pillow. It's easy to pack and comfortable, and makes it so I can actually sleep on flights.

Ultimate Bucket List Experience: Seeing the Aurora Borealis from the comfort of somewhere warm, like a glass igloo or hot spring.

Travel Motto: Curiosity is an amazing compass.

Aisle, Window, or Middle Seat: Aisle all the way.

Email Christine Sarkis at editor@smartertravel.com.

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Hurricane season kicks off on June 1. And this year, all the experts agree—at least so far—that we’re likely to have a below-normal season.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts a near- or below-normal hurricane season this year. It predicts only a 10 percent chance of an above-normal season, with a 70 percent chance of eight to 13 named storms and three to six hurricanes, with one to two of those becoming major hurricanes.

The Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University is also a predicting a year of below-average activity. It cites a cooler tropical Atlantic and the likelihood of an El Nino of moderate strength as contributors to the lower probability for major hurricanes making landfall in the U.S. and Caribbean.

Accuweather.com concurs, saying that, according to its long-range forecasting team, this should be a below-normal hurricane season.

However, all of these organizations stress that the prediction of a quieter hurricane season doesn’t mean people living in hurricane-prone areas shouldn’t take all the proper precautions. It does mean, however, that anyone traveling to such a destination has a better chance of an uninterrupted vacation.

The official hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30, with peak activity tending to fall in September.

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