Atlanta(CNN) June 1 marks the beginning of the hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean. Here are three things you need to know about this year's season:
1) It's already started! Despite the fact that hurricane season officially starts on June 1 and ends on November 30, tropical systems can form during any month of the year. But conditions are more favorable during the season, when ocean temperatures are warmer and wind shear is lower.
Between December and May there is a much smaller area of warm water to support tropical development and there is also significantly higher wind shear. Wind shear is a weather phenomenon that results in a sudden burst of wind over a short distance. It can occur either horizontally or vertically.
Tropical systems during the month of May aren't as unusual as you might think. Including 2016, there have been six named storms during the month of May since 2007. This year we had Tropical Storm Bonnie, which brought rip currents and rain during the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Much more uncommon was Hurricane Alex, which moved through the Azores islands in January.
2) El Niño has dominated weather headlines for the past several months, but it is rapidly weakening. In fact, we may head straight into a La Niña pattern by the middle of hurricane season. Why is this significant? El Niño played a large role in the lack of activity during the 2015 hurricane season.
El Niños generally bring increased wind shear over the tropical Atlantic, which deters the development of tropical systems. La Niña is the opposite and typically brings more favorable conditions for the formation of hurricanes.
Devastating hurricanes of the last 30 years
The last 30 years have brought plenty of deadly and destructive storms to the United States, including 2005's Hurricane Katrina (here, police and others use boats to rescue people in a flooded New Orleans neighborhood). Click through the gallery to see more photos of disastrous hurricanes over the last three decades, and
check out this video to find out which states have been hit the most often.
Sandy, 2012: It technically lost its hurricane status shortly before striking New Jersey, but its gigantic size -- it covered 1.8 million square miles at landfall -- sent devastating storm surges to the coast. Here, a man looks for pieces of his beach house after
Sandy demolished it in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. With 72 directly killed in eight states, this was the most deadly tropical cyclone outside the South since 1972's Hurricane Agnes. At least 650,000 U.S. homes were damaged or destroyed in the U.S.
Irene, 2011: After hitting North Carolina,
Irene did most of its damage in the way of heavy rain and flooding in New York and New England. In southern Vermont alone, nearly 2,400 roads were damaged or destroyed, NOAA says. Here, Tony Carr carries a TV set September 1 from his home, which was destroyed by Irene-related floods in Prattsville, New York.
Ike, 2008: After killing scores in the Caribbean, Ike turned to Texas, sending storm surges that leveled homes on Galveston Island. It's remnants did extensive damage as far north as Ohio, where 2.6 million people lost power. Here, an Air Force Reserve pararescueman scans the ravaged Texas landscape shortly after Ike.
Katrina, 2005: Unforgettable
Katrina -- the costliest hurricane and one of the five deadliest to hit the United States, according to NOAA -- devastated the Gulf Coast days after crossing Florida. Flooding destroyed thousands of homes in the New Orleans area alone; storm surges wiped out coastal towns in Mississippi. Here, people stand stranded on a roof in New Orleans.
Rita, 2005: Just a month after Katrina,
Hurricane Rita piled on, slamming into the Louisiana coast. Wind, rain and tornadoes left billions in damages from eastern Texas to Alabama. Here, surging water from Rita reach the streets of New Orleans' Ninth Ward, topping a levee that had just been patched after Katrina damaged it.
Wilma, 2005: The year might be remembered for the one-two punch of Katrina and Rita, but
Wilma, which hit Florida after devastating Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, would become (as of May 2015) the U.S.'s fifth most costly cyclone. Here, workers remove debris from a Miami flower and plant shop on October 28. Millions were without power in the state.
Beta, 2005: Beta wasn't one of the most devastating cyclones, but we include it here to make a point: There were so many named storms in the Atlantic in 2005 that forecasters' pre-approved 21-name list for the year was exhausted. So they went to the Greek alphabet six times, including for Hurricane Beta, which directly hit part of Nicaragua. Here, people wade through a street flooded by Beta in Honduras on October 30.
Ivan, 2004: This year also was hurricane-heavy, punctuated by
Ivan, a storm with two lives. First, it killed dozens in the Caribbean and slammed into Alabama. Later, its remnants went back over Florida from the Atlantic and re-formed in the Gulf as a tropical storm, making another landfall in southwestern Louisiana. It spawned more than 100 tornadoes, one of the factors that left considerable damage across the Southeast and some mid-Atlantic states. Here, a woman walks over debris as she visits her home, destroyed by Ivan, in Perdido Key, Florida, on September 20.
Floyd, 1999: Deadly flooding, especially in North Carolina, was one of Floyd's main legacies. Parts of eastern North Carolina and Virginia received 15 to 20 inches of rain, and flooding led to the razing of thousands of buildings -- most of them homes -- from North Carolina to New Jersey. At the time, it was the deadliest U.S. hurricane since 1972. Here,a beach house, severely damaged by Floyd, sits crumbled sits in the sand on the Oak Island town of Long Beach, North Carolina, on November 10.
Andrew, 1992:
Andrew blasted its way across south Florida on August 24 as a Category 4 with peak gusts measured at 164 mph. After raking entire neighborhoods in an around Homestead, it moved across the Gulf to hit Louisiana as a Category 3. It was responsible for 23 U.S. deaths and three in the Bahamas. Here, a sailboat sits on a sidewalk at Dinner Key in Miami after Andrew washed it ashore.
Hugo, 1989:
Hugo ripped through the Carolinas, starting with Charleston, South Carolina, on September 22 as a Category 4 after raking the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Here, a man stands in a destroyed house on September 27 in South Carolina.
Does this mean 2016 will be an active year? Possibly. However, the seasonal forecast is quite difficult, as the National Hurricane Center stated last week. How quickly La Niña develops and how strong it becomes will play an important role in this year's activity. This is also only part of the equation; there are still many factors that have to come together to create an active season.
3) The United States is in the midst of a significant hurricane drought. There were no hurricane landfalls during 2015 and we haven't seen a major hurricane make landfall in the United States since Wilma in 2005. That's the longest drought in our reliable period of records, dating back to 1850. In fact, during this decadelong drought there have been 69 hurricanes without a landfall by a major storm, one that reaches category 3, 4, or 5. According to NASA, a stretch like this is only likely to happen once in 270 years.
Two of our most hurricane-prone states have gone significant periods without a landfall. Florida's last landfall was Wilma more than a decade ago, while Texas hasn't had a hurricane make landfall since 2008's Ike, a category 2 storm when it hit. Many believe the United States may be due for a major hurricane landfall and it's important that all coastal residents -- from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast -- not be complacent.