What Florida's extreme drought means for the upcoming hurricane season

This article originally appeared on PolitiFact Florida is experiencing one of its worst droughts in decades, causing widespread wildfires and evacuation orders in large swaths of the state. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis recently offered a possible silver lining. WATCH: Projects bringing water to drought-ridden land could end with USAID's dismantling "They do say, that when you have droughts, that the hurricane seasons tend to be less active," DeSantis said at an April 22 event in Jacksonville. "I don't know if that's true. I don't know if that's an old wives' tale. I don't know if there's data to back it up, but people do say that, and so I guess we shall see what that means for this season coming up." Over half of Florida is in an "extreme drought," as classified by the U.S. Drought Monitor, and about 22% of the state is in an "exceptional drought," the system's highest level. Meteorologists and climate experts told PolitiFact that droughts do not directly affect hurricane season, but people sometimes conflate the two as they can occur at the same time under certain conditions. "There actually isn't any basis for that," Andy Hazleton, an associate scientist at the University of Miami