Meteorologist and Hurricane Forecasters are calling for a much more active 2010 season with above-normal threats on the U.S. coastline.
"This year has the chance to be an extreme season," say forecasters. "It is certainly much more like 2008 than 2009 as far as the overall threat to the United States' East and Gulf coasts."
Meteorologists are forecasting seven landfalls. Five will be hurricanes, and two or three of the hurricanes will be major landfalls for the U.S.
They are calling for 16 to 18 tropical storms in total, 15 of which would be in the western Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico, and therefore a threat to land. In a typical season, there are about 11 named storms, of which two to three impact the coast of the United States.
There are a number of physical drivers that have meteorologists concerned for this upcoming hurricane season. These include:
--The rapidly weakening El Niño.
--Warmer ocean temperatures in the typical Atlantic tropical breeding grounds compared to last year (tropical storms draw energy from warm water).
--Weakening trade winds which reduce the amount of dry air injected into the tropics from Africa.
--Higher humidity levels which provide additional upward motion in the air and fuel tropical storm development.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins on June 1 and continues through November 30. These dates were selected because 97 percent of hurricane activity occurs during this six-month period.
CLICK HERE FOR AN INTERACTIVE TRACKING CHART:
www.stormpulse.com/atlantic
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