Another ‘above-normal’ Atlantic hurricane season ahead – Accuweather

Accuweather hurricane expert Dan Kottlowski forecasts the upcoming hurricane season will have “above-normal” tropical activity with a chance of a major hurricane making landfall in the US or Caribbean.

PHOTO: Accuweather forecasts 6-8 Atlantic hurricanes this season. Accuweather

With the Atlantic hurricane season less than two weeks away, the US-based weather forecaster predicts there could be 16-20 named storms. Of these, 6-8 could become hurricanes, of which 3-5 could be classified as major hurricanes with wind speeds of more than 111 mph.

Despite this being “above-normal”, it would still be fewer named storms than during the record past two years. 2020 saw a historic record of 30 named storms, while 2021 had the third-most on record with 21 named storms.

Accuweather urges people in more hurricane prone areas to prepare, saying some communities are still recovering from the “extraordinarily active” past two hurricane seasons.

Last August, Hurricane Ida flooded homes and knocked out power grids, ports, refineries and offshore oil platforms across Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico.

More than 2 million b/d of refinery production was halted as refiners braced for the incoming hurricane, and major offshore oil rigs and platforms remained shut long after Ida lashed across the Gulf of Mexico.

“Based on those past landfall locations, the areas with the greatest potential for direct impacts along the mainland U.S. are the southeast Texas coast eastward through Florida, particularly the panhandle area, and the coast of the Carolinas,” Kottlowski says.