Preparing for Hurricane Season

As hurricane season ramps up, it’s easy to focus on one question: How active will this year be?

But for emergency managers, the answer matters less than you might think.

Because whether the season is quiet or active, the real difference comes down to one thing: preparation.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June through November, with peak activity typically arriving in late summer and early fall. This year, a developing El Niño pattern is shaping conditions across the Atlantic Basin, often leading to fewer storms, especially in the Gulf of America.

"We have a strong El Niño developing. In fact, it may ultimately end up being the strongest El Niño in recorded history. I mean, it is skyrocketing," explained BAM Weather’s Senior Vice President of Meteorology, Matt Griffin.

"Anytime we're talking about a strong El Niño, or just El Niño in general, we're talking about the ocean waters in the Pacific. They're getting very warm, and when you get warm ocean waters in the Pacific, it favors a strong subtropical jet stream. Hurricanes just don't like those elevated winds. They like to develop in low-wind environments where they can kind of grow and spawn on their own, and there's nothing disturbing them."

Even in a quieter season, it only takes one storm to change everything.

In Pasco County, Florida, hurricane preparation doesn’t begin when a storm appears on the radar. It begins months earlier.

For Pasco County Sheriff's Office Emergency Management Director Andrew Donowa and his team, planning kicks off in early April. That’s when they begin reviewing staffing plans, communication strategies, and potential hazards across the region.

"It's more of a holistic approach to the preparation," Donowa explained. "We look at all the hazards and all the threats."

By May, those plans move from discussion to action. Teams conduct tabletop exercises, simulate disaster scenarios, and participate in large-scale drills alongside state and county partners. Every department practices its role.

The mission is clear: protect both first responders and the community they serve.

One of the most powerful tools in Pasco County’s preparation strategy is its partnership with BAM Weather. Instead of relying on static scenarios, BAM Weather brings training to life.

BAM Weather meteorologists create realistic, evolving weather situations directly within the BAM Weather platform, complete with simulated hurricane updates, tornado warnings, flood alerts, and severe weather notifications that look and feel exactly like the real thing.

"The way we use the BAM team’s fake warnings is so that we can get our leadership team, our operations teams, and our planning teams in a thought process as if it was a real storm," Donowa said.

These exercises don’t just test plans, they strengthen them. They reveal gaps, improve communication, and build confidence long before a real emergency arrives.

When asked what advice he would give to other emergency management agencies, Donowa didn’t start with weather models or technology.

He started with people.

"You gotta take care of your members. You gotta take care of the people that are doing the job, because if you can't take care of them first, they're not gonna be able to help the public. They're gonna be worried about what's going on at home. That's the first thing. Take care of your members."

It’s a reminder that behind every emergency response plan are individuals working under pressure to protect their communities.

Second on Donowa’s list of advice was to use BAM Weather.

"And the second thing, use BAM Weather. It's probably one of the easiest and best tools I've ever used in my career," he said.

"I'd probably say the biggest tool right now that I love is the storm tracking. I can go on there, look at storm tracks, and build out our own tracks and see how long it's gonna take for that storm to pass through us. It's a really good visual for our command staff. Even though I'm still chatting with the meteorologists, it's a good visual that I can send them and say, 'Hey, look, within the next 35 minutes, possibly, the storm's going to be gone.' And then I also follow up with whatever weather brief y'all have given us via the chat."

Perhaps most importantly, it allows his team to focus on what matters most: people.

For emergency managers, having trusted weather expertise isn't simply about receiving another forecast. It's about gaining the time and confidence needed to make informed decisions before conditions become critical. And when every minute counts, that partnership can make all the difference.