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It's the time of year travelers pack their bags and head to the coast or Carribean, right in the heart of the hurricane season.
Travel agents will tell you it's always a good idea to get insurance if you're going to the hurricane zones (Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean), especially from June through November. But why pay for something you may never need to use?
When is the Atlantic hurricane season?
The Atlantic hurricane season generally runs from June 1-Nov. 30 each year (though Zeta, the last storm of 2005, was actually still swirling around in early January 2006). The period when you'll usually see the most storms is between mid-August and the end of October.
Which regions make up the Atlantic hurricane zone?
The hurricane zone covers the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Coast of the U. S.
What's the difference between a tropical storm and a hurricane?
And what about tropical depressions? These are all terms used by the National Hurricane Center to define the severity of "organized disturbed weather." A tropical depression is the least severe of the three, with maximum sustained wind speeds up to 38 miles per hour. Once the maximum sustained wind speed hits 39 mph, the storm is categorized as a tropical storm and gets a name. Hurricanes have wind speeds of 74 mph or above, and are further divided into categories one (up to 95 mph) through five (156 mph and above).