Here we go again. The NOAA is telling everyone to be on guard for an “above-normal” hurricane season. Of course, they’ve been hoping to be right about this same prediction for the last three years, but so be it…
The predictions came after calmer-than-normal seasons of 2006 and 2007.
But “we believe that the Atlantic basin is still in an active hurricane cycle,” William Gray, who co-heads the CSU team, said in December. “This active cycle is expected to continue at least for another decade or two. After that, we’re likely to enter a quieter Atlantic major hurricane period.”
The 2007 season was the weakest in five years, despite two hurricanes making landfall at Category 5 intensity, according to the National Hurricane Center. Hurricanes Dean and Felix hit Mexico and Nicaragua respectively, marking the first time in history that two Category 5 storms made landfall in the same season since records started being kept in 1851, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Of 2007′s six hurricanes, only one — Humberto — made landfall in the United States, striking the upper Texas Gulf Coast on September 13. Humberto was blamed for one death.
In 2006, there were nine named storms and five hurricanes. None made landfall in the United States. Gray’s team that year had predicted 17 named storms and nine hurricanes, five of them major.
The NOAA said its outlook will be updated on August 7.
I guess if you’re wrong on the same fear mongering two years in a row, you’d might as well go for broke on a third. After all, even a broken clock is right twice a day.