Tampa dodges hurricane season for 93rd year in a row

Sunday marked the close of another Atlantic hurricane season, and Florida emerged untouched for the ninth year in a row. While that figure alone has garnered media attention, the City of Tampa has now survived 93 hurricane seasons without experiencing a direct hit. The staggering figure may reassure entrepreneurs who wrongly assume the Sunshine State is beleaguered by property damage and physical danger from hurricanes in the Southeast. 

Last year, the Tampa Tribune reported the city had cleared its 92nd consecutive season, so with the official close of 2014, observers can tack another onto that impressive bit of good fortune. Through the years, the city has experienced wind and rain from weather patterns in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, but no direct landfall from the catastrophic storms. As a result, businesses, property sales and government operations have been able to chug along uninterrupted by hurricanes. 

"Some of the reasons why Tampa Bay tends to avoid major hurricane landfalls is due to its geographic location," Phil Klotzbach, a meteorology professor at CSU, told the Tribune. "Storms have to hit Tampa Bay from the south and west to cause significant damage. Tracks of tropical cyclones have to be somewhat unusual to hit the area."

The Miami Herald reports that 2014 marks the second inactive year in a row, begging the question of whether Atlantic storm patterns have eased up for the foreseeable future. Almost 10 years ago, the calm seas would have been hard to imagine as Florida and its neighbors were inundated with severe weather. 

As meteorologists make sense of the news, the nearly century-long trend bodes well for companies seeking office space in Tampa. Its geographic position sets the city ahead of its neighbors for hurricane protection.