Hurricane Half Time Score: 6 Named Storms so far in 2009

Retailers, homeowners and insurers in hurricane prone areas of the U.S. let out a cautious sigh of relief this past weekend as the typical peak of the Atlantic Hurricane Season came and went.  According to Richard Woolley, VP of Operations at Weather Trends International, Inc. “It’s about as quiet as it gets for the middle of Hurricane Season as the only threat in the Atlantic Basin this morning is from the last dying gasps of what was once called Hurricane Fred, which is now nothing more than a couple of thunderstorms several thousand miles away from the U.S. Mainland.”  Going forward from today, the chance for a tropical storm or hurricane to develop begins to decrease until the end of November when the Atlantic Hurricane Season is officially over. 

So far this year it’s been a very uneventful season with 6 named storms but no land-falling hurricanes.  Insured and business losses have been minimal with very minor storm damage in Florida from Tropical Storm Claudette and a slight disruption in beach traffic from Tropical Storm Danny.

By this same point last year, several major hurricanes had battered the eastern United States.  Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike all made landfall on 3 successive weekends starting at the end of August through mid-September.  Insured and uninsured losses in 2008 were estimated to be $25.37 billion dollars.  Retailers at the coast and as far inland as Chicago, IL were particularly hard hit by the successive weekend storms. Excessive rainfall, evacuations, store closures and power outages caused store traffic disruptions, which will have weighed heavily on retailer’s sales results.  Numerous other industries that rely on strong weekend sales traffic were severely impacted as well, including restaurants, tourism and recreation, real estate sales and automotive sales.  When coupled with the financial storm that was brewing on Wall Street, it’s no wonder the U.S. economy began it’s freefall into the “Great Recession”.

PRESS CONTACT:

Richard Woolley, VP Operations

610-807-3584

rwoolley@wxtrends.com

Michael Ferrari, PhD, VP Applied Technology & Research

610-807-3582

About Weather Trends International The global leader of actionable year-ahead business weather guidance for retailers, manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, agricultural firms, financial analysts and small business.  Clients include some of the world’s most respected and successful companies like Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Target, AutoZone, Sears Canada, REI, Anheuser-Busch, Johnson & Johnson, 3M, SC Johnson, Reckitt Benckiser, Town Shoes, Sherwin-Williams, JP Morgan, Agway, Hershey’s and over a hundred others.  Its business centric weather solutions and understanding of how consumers respond to the weather is used throughout organizations to help "manage the weather risk”.  Utilizing technology first developed in the early 1990s, Weather Trends International’s unique statistical math based trade secret formula forecasting methodology projects temperature, precipitation and snowfall trends by day and week a year-ahead for 60,000+ locations across the globe with an industry leading 80%+ accuracy.  WTI is recipient of four business and technology awards in 2009: Winner of the Red Herring North America technology award; Winner of the American Business Award for Most Innovative Company of the Year; International Business Award Finalist and Featured Forbes Finalist for America’s Most Promising Companies.  Offices in Bethlehem, PA and Bentonville, AR.  Visit http://www.wxtrends.com/ or http://www.myskeye.com/ for more information.