Community Corner

NOAA Predicts Dangerous Hurricane Season

The latest predictions call for only a few fewer storms than NOAA first predicted in May.

Written by Erica Jackson

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is still predicting an overly active 2013 Atlantic hurricane season with a 70 percent chance of major storms impacting the Northeast.

In August, NOAA released its updated outlook, which predicts 13 to 19 tropical storms this season, as well as 6 to 9 hurricanes, packing winds 74 miles per hour and higher; and 3 to 5 major hurricanes, with winds of at least 111 miles per hour.

The normal ranges for an Atlantic Hurricane season are 12 tropical storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes

"The conditions in place now are similar to those that have produced many active Atlantic hurricane seasons since 1995 and include above-average Atlantic sea surface temperatures and a stronger rainy season in West Africa, which produces wind patterns that help turn storm systems there into tropical storms and hurricanes." stated NOAA.

The latest predictions; however, call for only a few less storms than NOAA first predicted in May.

Motivating this change, NOAA said is a decreased likelihood that La Niña will develop and because of a lack of major storms in July.

The announcement comes as many on Long Island continue to recover from devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on Oct. 29, 2012, knocking out power to nearly 1 million electric customers, flooding homes in South Shore communities, creating breaches in barrier islands and toppling countless trees across the densely populated suburbia. 


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