Posted on 04/02/2008 8:50:41 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - The noted Colorado State University forecast team expects an above average Atlantic hurricane season and may raise its prediction of 13 tropical storms and seven hurricanes when it updates its outlook next week, the team's founder Bill Gray said on Wednesday.
La Nina cool-water conditions in the Pacific and higher sea surface temperatures in the eastern Atlantic are contributing to enhanced conditions for hurricane activity, Gray told Reuters at the U.S. National Hurricane Conference.
"We're expecting an above average season," Gray said. "The big question we have is, are we going to raise the numbers from our December forecast? We might."
"We're not going to lower the numbers," he said.
The average hurricane season produces about 10 tropical storms and six hurricanes -- a standard that was blown out of the water in the record-busting season of 2005, when 28 storms formed, including the hurricane that swamped New Orleans, Katrina.
The Colorado State team issues forecasts several times a year. In December, it said it expected the 2008 season starting June 1 to produce 13 tropical storms, of which seven would become hurricanes and three would be major hurricanes with winds of at least 111 miles per hour (178 km per hour).
Gray said La Nina, a cooling of waters in the eastern Pacific that can enhance conditions for hurricane activity in the Atlantic, will be "on the cold side."
"Also, the sea surface temperatures in the eastern Atlantic particularly off Iberia and off northwest Africa, they are very warm, much like they were at this time in 1995 and 2005 when we had very active seasons," he said.
Actually I thought that it reminded me of the 1977 blackout in NYC or the LA riots.
I didn't live in LA or NYC, but you make an excellent point about what happened in those terrible times.
The wanton fires, explosions and lootings of New Orleans are seldom mentioned in the media because of Political Correctness. But I swear to you, there are three verrrrrrrrry distinct reasons why businesses are avoiding that town at all costs. The flood/storm insurance factor is one of them. The absurd taxes is another reason. I will leave it to the audience to figure out the rest.
Sources:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-06-NOcrime_N.htm
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/raw_stats_show_rise_in_violent.html
“This is ridiculous. They know what the frickin’ cycles are from historical records. I want to see what their prediction is put up against the total statistical average, as well as the expected occurrences for where in the cycle we are, including a standard deviation.”
You are asking for the secret statistical sauce. I think you also give them too much credit.
Here is my prediction: There is a 50% chance of the number of hurricanes being above average, and a 50% chance of them being below average.
The one thing we DO know is that the number won’t be average.
Didn’t we hear this exact same forecast last year at this time? I think if they say it every year, sooner-or-later, they will get it right...
You know - the old “even a broken clock is right twice a day”...
Sooner or later he will be right!!!!!
Even when they named every sub-sub-tropical storm last year he was WAY off.
A good thing, but who the heck cares what he predicts? Guess he has justify his six figure job somehow.
they're already doing that... last year they used storms out of the "hurricane" area and weaker as 'hurricanes" in order to say....(insert number) of hurricanes this year.
There is a specific definition for "hurricanes" as to date of occurrence, wind velocity, and area that it's generated from. The weather service is expanding these in order to classify more storms as "tropical depressions/hurricanes" that they can attribute to "global warming".
They're a joke...., again. Bureaucrats creating problems in order to justify their jobs.
Well they have started naming tropical depressions to get the number of named storms up.
Bill Gray is to hurricane predictions as is Dick Morris to political predictions.
It could be that we’ll have a busy season. It could also be that none of those hurricanes makes landfall, or if a couple do, they may do only slight damage. It’s truly a crapshoot.
It's Lake Wobegon weather forecasting, where all the hurricane seasons are above average.
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