August 6, 2020
BILL CHAPPELL
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is off to a record start – and it will only get worse as the season's traditional peak begins next week and will run through October. The latest estimates call for nearly twice the normal number of named storms this year.
Even before Aug. 1, nine named storms had already formed – "the most ever recorded since the satellite era began in 1966," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The 2020 season will likely bring from 19 to 25 named storms, said Gerry Bell, lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. That figure includes the nine storms that have already been named.
"We've never forecast up to 25 storms," Bell said in a telephone briefing about the new forecast. "So this is the first time."
BILL CHAPPELL
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is off to a record start – and it will only get worse as the season's traditional peak begins next week and will run through October. The latest estimates call for nearly twice the normal number of named storms this year.
Even before Aug. 1, nine named storms had already formed – "the most ever recorded since the satellite era began in 1966," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The 2020 season will likely bring from 19 to 25 named storms, said Gerry Bell, lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. That figure includes the nine storms that have already been named.
"We've never forecast up to 25 storms," Bell said in a telephone briefing about the new forecast. "So this is the first time."
NOAA Now Predicts Up To 25 Named Storms In The Atlantic Hurricane Season
"We've never forecast up to 25 storms," says a NOAA expert. The expected spate of storms in 2020 could force meteorologists to resort to using the Greek alphabet to name storms later this year.
www.npr.org