NOAA Predicts Another 'Above-Normal' Hurricane Season

Tighten your table umbrellas. Experts say we have a 60-percent chance of another above-normal  hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) foresees what it calls "a likely range" of between 13 and 21 named storms, with six to 10 turning into hurricanes--and three to five of those becoming major hurricanes with winds greater than 111 m.p.h.

The amount and severity of the activity depends on several factors, according to Matthew Rosencrans, lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. These factors include warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic the Caribbean, weaker tropical Atlantic trade winds, and an enhanced west African monsoon.

The hurricane season starts June 1 and lasts through November 30, but experts are tracking a system, northeast of Bermuda, that could develop into the first named storm of the season.

Despite the chance of an above-normal hurricane season, NOAA said "experts do not anticipate the historic level of storm activity seen in 2020," when there were 14 hurricanes, of which half were major hurricanes.

There were so many named storms in 2020 that NOAA resorted to naming some after the letters of the Greek alphabet when the names on the 2020 list were exhausted.

Here are the names NOAA will be using in 2021:

Ana, Bill, Claudette, Danny, Elsa, Fred, Grace, Henri, Ida, Julian, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicholas, Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor, and Wanda.

Tropical Storm Fay brought massive clouds to Asbury Park when it made landfall in southern New Jersey July 10, 2020. (File photo/The Gazette of Really Small News)