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In the next 24 hours, a wide swath of the Mid-Atlantic will get hammered with about 3 inches of rain. New York may see close to 4 inches.

As of 5:45 p.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center's tracking system placed Tropical Storm Andrea on Florida's Gulf coast, level with Gainesville. Andrea is expected to spread rain and strong winds along the Southeastern coast tonight and Friday.

The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season is expected to dump 3 to 6 inches of rain in Florida, before moving along the eastern seaboard.

Forecasters expect Tropical Storm Andrea to bring heavy rains to Florida before moving up the East Coast in the coming days. It is the first named storm in what is expected to be a busy hurricane season.

Officials are forecasting that hurricane activity will be "above normal" this season, with 13 to 20 named storms. As many as six of those could be major hurricanes. Warm ocean waters and the lack of El Nino conditions are partly to blame.

Forecasters predict as many as six major hurricanes in the Atlantic this year due in part to warmer-than-average ocean temperatures.

Hurricanes are a tricky risk for insurers to cover.

Superstorm Sandy is what most people will remember from the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. But Sandy was just one of 10 hurricanes this year during a season that was both busy and strange. From an El Nino that never materialized to meandering tropical storms, meteorologists were baffled.

Hurricane forecasters predicted that Sandy would be an odd storm, and they were right. It turned left when most hurricanes turn right, it maintained its strength even as it struck land, and it joined forces with a winter storm. The computer models that characterized the storm's behavior are much more accurate and faster than they used to be.

The hand can opener is a storm cook's best friend. Sterno cans, gas grills and portable stoves can be, too, say our readers.