ORLANDO, Fla. – The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has begun. NOAA released its forecast on May 23, predicting the highest-ever number of storms for its May predictions.
The season officially starts on June 1 and ends on Nov. 30. This six-month period is chosen by the National Hurricane Center because it includes about 97% of all Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes, according to NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division.
Although the first tropical disturbance appeared in April, this early activity doesn’t necessarily indicate an extremely active season, but expert forecasts do. NOAA’s forecasters predicts a well-above-average season with 17-25 named storms, 8-13 hurricanes and 4-7 major hurricanes. Forecasters agree with this outlook.
This Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be more active than usual due to several factors including near-record warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic, developing La Niña conditions in the Pacific, weaker Atlantic trade winds and reduced wind shear, all of which promote tropical storm formation.
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According to the World Meteorological Organization, the list of hurricane names includes only 21 letters because it’s hard to find six suitable names for the missing letters: Q, U, X, Y and Z.
However, the latest forecasts shows up to 25 storms this year, so there’s a chance we may use names from the supplemental list.
Until 2021, Greek letters were used for extra storms, but this only happened twice. In 2021, the World Meteorological Organization created a list of overflow names.
The first storm in 2024 will be named Alberto. If we get through all the names up to William, the supplemental list will start with Adria.
The peak of the hurricane season is Sept. 10, but deadly hurricanes can happen at any time during the season.
Both News 6 and the National Hurricane Center are reliable sources for weather information.
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