A team of experts from Colorado State University announced its first forecast for the 2019 hurricane season that will run from June 1 through November 30. In a normal season there would be 12 tropical storms with six reaching hurricane level intensity. For 2019, the team is predicting that storm activity may be somewhat interrupted by atmospheric circulation associated with El Niño.
As such, their forecast is that Atlantic activity will be 75 percent of normal and predict only five named storms. Only three of these are expected to intensify into major hurricanes reaching category 3 or higher, measuring damaging wind speeds in excess of 111 mph. Last year’s forecast of 14 storms and seven major hurricanes turned out to be very accurate as the U.S. saw a total of 15 storms and eight major hurricanes in a fairly active season.
The team, founded under the leadership of meteorologist William Gray, is making its 36th annual forecast.
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