Hurricane forecasters at Colorado State University are expecting an above average hurricane season and say there is a 45 percent chance that at least one major storm will reach landfall on the East Coast, which includes peninsular Florida.The group goes on to estimate that there is a 69 percent chance a major hurricane (Category 3,4 or 5) will hit somewhere along the entire U.S. coastline this season.
The annual study for the 2010 Hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, is the 27th put out by forecasters Philip J. Klotzbach and William M. Gray. They are basing their estimates on the El Nino weather pattern weakening, creating warmer conditions conducive to increased hurricane activity.”We continue to foresee above-average activity for the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season,” the report states. “We have increased our seasonal forecast due to a combination of anomalous warming of Atlantic tropical sea surface temperatures and a more confident view that the current El Niño will weaken. We anticipate an above-average probability of United States and Caribbean major hurricane landfall.”In all the group is predicting 15 named storms during the 2010 season, 8 storms are expected to grow to hurricanes and four into major hurricanes with sustained winds of 111 miles per hour or greater.