Texas is suffering from a drought, but not everyone misses the rain. While we may need it, beach lovers on Galveston Island aren't exactly hoping for another big storm.
This is the kind of summer, beach business owner Taki Kypreos likes.
"Weather's been extra hot," he said.
The beach is hot. The water's getting hot. Tourists are coming to rent his umbrellas and beach chairs.
"Everybody wants rain," he said. "I don't want any. Sun does me good."
But as Kypreos looks out on the Gulf in the middle of this hot dry summer, there is something missing this season. Not a single storm has even formed in the Atlanic this hurricane season and we're three days into August.
"I don't even want to talk about a storm," said Kypreos. "Hopefully the one we had last year will last us a few years."
But history shows that getting to August without a single storm in the Gulf or Atlantic isn't all that rare. And it doesn't tell you a whole lot about what could be on the way.
"The weather patterns have changed a little bit," said Channel 13 Chief Meteorologist Tim Heller. "Right now, we have wind shear over the Atlantic, which keeps these little tropical waves from forming. At the same time, we have dust, not thunderstorms, coming off the west coast of Africa."
Heller looked back and found out the last time we went this long without a storm was 2000, but... "There is no correlation between how the season begins and how the season ends," he added.
In 1983, Hurricane Alicia formed August 15, the first storm of that year. When it hit Galveston, three days later, it was a Category 3 hurricane, caused $2.6 billion worth of damage and killed 21 people.
Even worse, Hurricane Andrew didn't form until August 16, 1992. It is still the second costliest storm in U.S. history.
[SEE A VIDEO SHOWING JULY NAMED STORMS VS AUGUST NAMED STORMS]
So don't celebrate and don't get too over-confident. Kypreos knows that hurricanes love that same warm water his customers do.
"That's when they brew and when they get big, in the heat," he said.
By comparison, last year we were in the thick of it. Twelve months ago today, Tropical Storm Eduoard formed in the Gulf while South Padre was still cleaning up from Hurricane Dolly. That storm made landfall July 23.
