Hurricane Season Offically Begins June 1
Posted by Mercedes Barre on Thu, May 24, 2012
Hurricae Season offically begins June 1.
This updated preseason forecast calls for 11 named storms, 6 hurricanes and 2 major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale). These forecast numbers are below the long-term average from 1950-2011 (12 named storms, 7 hurricanes, 3 major hurricanes) and well below the averages for the current active era from 1995-2011 (15 named storms, 8 hurricanes, 4 major hurricanes).
Already this season we've seen one named storm, Alberto, which formed on May 19. This storm developed off the Southeast coast a little less than two weeks before the official start of the season on June 1.
Forecast number of tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes compared to average.
“After very active tropical seasons in 2010 and 2011, we expect fewer storms to develop this hurricane season,” said Weather Services International (WSI), a part of The Weather Channel Companies, Chief Meteorologist Dr. Todd Crawford. "The combination of slightly cooler North Atlantic ocean temperatures and a trend towards El Nino conditions suggest a notable reduction in activity. For this update, the slight increase in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures during the last month was offset by slightly higher confidence in El Nino development, resulting in no change to our numbers."
The peak hurricane season is August through October as reported on The Weather Channel. See their full report of the 2012 Hurricane forecast:
http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/hurricane-season-forecast-20120522