Hurricane Season kicks off

WEST MIAMI-DADE, Fla. (WSVN) -- Today marks the first day of the 2012 Hurricane Season.

"It only takes the one that makes landfall to describe how severe a season is," said National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read.

It's day one, and the hurricane season officially begins after two storms, Alberto and Beryl, already kicked it off in May. "This is very unusual to have two storms in the Atlantic and two storms in the Pacific already, and now we're at the official start of the hurricane season," said Read. "It might come to a surprise to your viewers to know, though, there's not any correlation between what goes on in May and say what the rest of the season will be like especially, in the peak, August, September and October," said Read.

The forecast for the season is broad ranging from less than normal to more than normal, but officials said that has no bearing on readiness. "Here's your choice, you can wait and hope nothing bad happens or you can get ready now and have peace of mind," said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate.

As emergency managers always ask Floridians to prepare for the worst, forecasters are hoping for the best. "The wild card being whether we get an El Niño condition in the Pacific in which case we would have the lower end of the forecast versus the higher end," said Read.

The last hurricane South Florida faced was Wilma in 2005. This season marks 20 years since Hurricane Andrew plowed through South Florida.

For all your hurricane season concerns and questions watch Surviving a Storm tonight on 7 at 8 p.m.

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