2010 hurricane season seen even MORE active than first feared

[Bluebear]

MIAMI (Reuters) – The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season will be even more active than feared, leading U.S. forecasters said on Wednesday as they predicted 10 hurricanes, five of them major, with a 76 percent likelihood that a major hurricane would hit the U.S. coastline.

The outlook from the Colorado State University team follows predictions by U.S. government scientists for an intense season that could disrupt efforts to contain a huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill and also batter earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Increasing a previous estimate for a "very active" season, the leading CSU storm research team founded by hurricane forecast pioneer William Gray said the six-month season beginning on June 1 would likely see 18 named tropical storms.

Of these, CSU saw 10 becoming hurricanes, with five becoming major Category 3 or higher hurricanes with winds above 110 miles per hour (177 km per hour).

The CSU scientists increased their forecast from an April 7 prediction of 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes....

The CSU team saw a 51 percent chance that a major hurricane would make landfall on the U.S. East Coast, including the Florida Peninsula, and a 51 percent chance that one would hit the Gulf Coast, from the Florida Panhandle to Brownsville, Texas.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100602/ts_nm/us_storm_hurricanes_forecast

[jdlh8894]

1. With only a 51% chance of ONE hurricane hitting

the East Coast or in the Gulf- Guess I'll call all the relatives and tell them to get the hell out of Dodge!

[Bluebear]

6. Don't worry, be happy.

[SargeUNN]

2. Just a prediction that is often wrong

Having lived in South Mississippi I have heard of these predictions for a heavy season often and then it turns up being mild, but sometimes they get right. It really could be a busy season or a slack one, just depends.

[jdlh8894]

3. Heard you there.

It's all up to that BIG weather machine!Oh,yeah? Who built that?

[Sebastian Doyle]

4. I think they should name all the hurricanes after oil companies this year, in honor of the BP fuckup

Hurricanes are named alphabetically, of course, so I'll name a few and then someone else can continue...

Hurricane Amoco
Hurricane BP
Hurricane Conoco
Hurricane Dutch Royal Shell
Hurricane Exxon

[obxhead]

5. This is consistently over hyped every year.

the weather person, wrong 95% of the time and doesn't get fired. What a job.

On another note, who knows what's going to happen out there with even small depressions out in the gulf. It seems to me it wouldn't take much rotation at all to really mix things up. Worst of all is that every storm in the gulf is a delay on the relief wells being drilled as they shut down the drilling rigs.

[Bluebear]

7. I think the "hype" is more concerning because of the oil this year, but it could be just me

[obxhead]

9. I agree with you.

Every tropical wave will be watched so much more closely this season, probably next season as well is my guess.

It's better IMO to worry about actual events though, not predictions. Especially when it comes to weather predictions.

[Dappleganger]

8. Better to be safe than sorry.

While I am not superstitious, it does bother me somewhat that they are recycling the names from the 2004 season (except for the retired ones). WeatherUnderground is my favorite source for hurricane-related info and you can read Dr. Masters' blog here (scroll down the page to read his comments about how the hurricanes could affect the spread of the oil: http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/article.html