FORT COLLINS — In its 28th year of issuing predictions, the Colorado State University forecast team today predicted an above-average 2011 Atlantic basin hurricane season.
The team slightly reduced its early December prediction, but still called for an active season based on current La Nina conditions that are expected to transition to near-neutral conditions during the heart of the hurricane season.
The CSU team now calls for 16 named storms instead of 17 forming in the Atlantic basin between June 1 and Nov. 30.
Nine of those are expected to turn into hurricanes with five developing into major hurricanes with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater.
“We expect that anomalously warm tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures combined with neutral tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures will contribute to an active season,” Phil Klotzbach of the CSU Tropical Meteorology Project said in a news release.
“We have reduced our forecast slightly from early December due to a combination of recent ocean warming in the eastern and central tropical Pacific and recent cooling in the tropical Atlantic,” Klotzbach said.
