With Thursday being the initial day of winter, no 1 desires to believe about the upcoming hurricane season, more than five months away.
Nonetheless, WSI, component of The Weather Channel Organizations, released an initial projection for 2012 on Wednesday, calling for 12 named storms, which includes seven hurricanes. It predicts three of the hurricanes will have winds greater than 110 mph.
If the projection holds, it would amount to a rather tame season. WSI primarily based its forecast on cooling Atlantic temperatures and waning La Niña conditions. La Niña is the atmospheric force that nurtures tropical storm formation.
Todd Crawford, WSI chief meteorologist, stated the probabilities of a hurricane hitting the U.S. coast next year are about normal. On average, about two hurricanes strike per year.
The Colorado State University group of Phil Klotzbach and William Gray for the very first time this year declined to release an outlook in December.
2011, South Florida Sun-Sentinel