Randy Mann: Hurricane season unremarkable so far; our area stays hot

The 2014 Atlantic and Caribbean hurricane season – which runs June 1 through Nov. 30 – has been relatively uneventful thus far.

As of early Tuesday, there have been only two named storms, with both becoming hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. The strongest was Hurricane Arthur, which did make landfall along the North Carolina coast on July 4.

During a typical season, the eastern Pacific Ocean will see more tropical storm and hurricane development. So far, there have been 13 named storms. Hurricane Iselle and Hurricane Julio got the most attention as they threatened the Hawaiian Islands. Iselle weakened to a tropical storm, but moved over the Big Island of Hawaii on Aug. 8. Despite the decreased intensity, it was the strongest tropical storm to hit the Big Island in history.

This is also the time of year that a storm could bring some much-needed rainfall to drought-ravaged Southern California. There are no indications this will happen soon, but any moisture at all would be appreciated in the Golden State. We don’t usually hear much about the Pacific hurricanes as the ones in the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean receive more media attention because they pose a bigger threat to land.

In terms of our weather, the warmer-than-normal summer temperatures continue for August. As of early this week, the airport was reporting average readings more than 4 degrees above normal. Only 0.05 inches of moisture has fallen this month through Tuesday. However, thunderstorms that formed earlier this month that missed the airport did bring more moisture to Coeur d’Alene. About 0.80 inches of rain has been reported in the northwestern portion of Coeur d’Alene this August.