Hurricane Season 2008 Prediction
It's that time of the year again when meterologists take their first shot at predictions for the 2008 Hurricane Season. The Colorado State University team calls for a well above aberage hurricane season. ( this is not a suprise) It seems every year we hear the same forecasts. The reason for this quoted from William Gray "Current oceanic and atmospheric trends indicate that we will likely have an active Atlantic basin hurricane season". The forecast calls for 15 named storms in the Atlantic, eight of them to become Hurricanes and 4 to become intense of major hurricanes.
Current conditions across the Atlantic ocean are favorable for an active season as the current sea surface temperature pattern in the Atlantic is typical from past active seasons. The main rise in temps in 2008 is because of a positive phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO).
The hurricane forecast team reiterated its probabilities for a major hurricane making landfall on U.S. soil:
A 69 percent chance that at least one major hurricane will make landfall on the U.S. coastline in 2008 (the long-term average probability is 52 percent).
A 45 percent chance that a major hurricane will make landfall on the U.S. East Coast, including the Florida Peninsula (the long-term average is 31 percent)
A 44 percent chance that a major hurricane will make landfall on the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle west to Brownsville (the long-term average is 30 percent).
The team will issue seasonal updates of its 2008 Atlantic basin hurricane activity forecast on June 3, Aug. 5, Sept. 2 and Oct. 1.