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NCSU researchers predict active Atlantic hurricane season

By Richard Stradling

April 17, 2016 4:59 PM

In this Sept. 11, 2005, aerial file photo, Six Flags Great Adventure Amusement Park is surrounded by floodwaters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Developers want to bring life back the rusting and ghostly theme park on the edge of the swamps outside New Orleans more than 10 years after it was abandoned when Hurricane Katrina left it underwater. On Tuesday, April 12, 2016, two groups of developers again urged the city to help them revive the site, once run by Six Flags and called the Jazzland amusement park. DAVID J. PHILLIP AP

RALEIGH

Researchers at N.C. State University are predicting an unusually active hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean this year.

There should be 15 to 18 tropical storms and hurricanes this season in the Atlantic basin, which includes the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, said Lian Xie, professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences. The seasonal average over the last 65 years was about 11 named storms.

Xie says 8 to 11 tropical storms this year may grow strong enough to become hurricanes, and that three to five storms could become major hurricanes with sustained winds of at least 111 mph.

The NCSU researchers use historical storm data as well as other variables, such as weather patterns and sea-surface temperatures, to predict the number of storms. The researchers don’t predict the path of the storms or how many will make landfall.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.

This story was originally published April 17, 2016 at 4:59 PM with the headline "NCSU researchers predict active Atlantic hurricane season."

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