CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season officially begins, meteorologists are sounding the alarm that this year could resemble one of the most destructive seasons in recent memory—2017, the year of Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

WCNC Weather Impact Meteorologist Chris Mulcahy drew a striking comparison between current atmospheric conditions and those that preceded the catastrophic 2017 season.

“What I went through was: Since 1950, what year had the same temperature at this point in the season? And one stood out from all the rest,” Mulcahy explained on WCNC+ during a stream Monday morning.

Referencing the Pacific water temperatures and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle Mulcahy explained, “2017 wasn’t an exceptional year for the amount of storms that we had, but we h

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