2011 Hurricane Season Forecast

Another forecast for the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season is predicting an active season. This is the latest forecast in a series that all agree this year’s hurricane season should spin up an above average number of tropical storms and hurricanes.

For the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season that kicks off June 1st and lasts through November, NOAA is predicting the following:

12 to 18 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher)
6 to 10 hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher)
3 to 6 major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of 111 mph or higher)
Forecasters from Colorado State University expect net tropical cyclone activity to be about 175 percent of the long-term average. The forecast from Dr. William Grey and his team from Colorado State University is similar to NOAA’s:

16 named storms (11 average)
9 (6 average)
5 (2 average)
Just for fun, here is a time-lapse of last year’s hurricane season (the third most active on record) from Discovery Networks condensed into 1 minute: