The forecasts are pouring in from the U.S. government to private forecasters and next week the guru of hurricane gurus Dr. William Gray will update his forecast.

You are going to hear a ton of numbers, from the number of storms, the number of Category 5 storms and so on and so on. All of that makes for great headlines like, “Hurricane season 2006 will be even worse for the U.S.”

The problem is that none of these forecasts mean a thing unless they told you where, when and how strong the storms are going to be. None of which is included in these seasonal forecasts.

They are just numbers on how many storms will form. Not in the U.S., but in the entire Atlantic Ocean.

Take a look at a map when you get a chance. That’s a huge area! What is more accurate to portray from these forecasts, and I totally agree, is it will be an active hurricane season compared to normal.

Statistically, the more storms you have the more likely one could hit the U.S., but not necessarily. The total number of named storms doesn’t always spell doom for the United States.

Take the hurricane season from 1995, the most active hurricane season until last season. In 1995 there were 19 named storms in the Atlantic. Only a grand total of three made landfall in the U.S. and two were only as tropical storms. The other was a minimal category one storm. Compare that to the hurricane season of 1992 where we had seven named storms where two made landfall. But guess what? One of those two storms was Hurricane Andrew, which until Hurricane Katrina was the worst storm to ever hit the U.S.

There were seven names storms in the 1992 season, but $26 billion worth of damage and 39 deaths.

In the 1995 season there were 19 named storms with three landfalls totaling $377 million and four deaths.

Which season was the worst?

Well any season where your house or town gets hit is a bad season, but most people would say 1992 was worse because of Hurricane Andrew. Just as last season will be known for Katrina; think about it. What if Katrina didn’t hit New Orleans? Would last season seem so bad?

Something to think about when you hear about all the number of storms forecasted: It’s not the number of storms that matter; it’s were they hit and how strong they are when they hit.

So as everyone plans - as they should - for the worst case scenario, don’t lose a ton of sleep over the upcoming hurricane season. Weather is a fickle thing; you can’t do much about it but be prepared!