Ernesto is first hurricane of 2006

At 5:04 this morning, the US National Hurricane Centre measured Ernesto’s winds at 75 MPH (121 km/h) making it the first hurricane of 2006.

At this time last year hurricane Katrina had New Orleans in its sites and was the 5th hurricane and eleventh named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.

2005 turned out to be the worst hurricane season on record in damages and in number of named storms. Pundits predicted that 2006 could be on par or even worse than 2006.

While Ernesto’s status has been upgraded to the first hurricane of the season, it is the fifth named storm. Clearly, the 2006 hurricane season has so far been much less active than forecast/projected/predicted/prophesized.