Active storm season forecasted

William Gray and his hurricane forecasting team from Colorado State University said the Atlantic current will produce eight hurricanes this year, four of them major, Reuters reported.

This is the second forecast for Gray and his team for the 2010 hurricane season, which begins June 1. Gray, considered a pioneer in hurricane forecasting, predicts the southeast will see 15 named tropical storms this season in the report.

Houston and Galveston, still in recovery from Hurricane Ike in 2008, have to get ready for a new season. The Chronicle reported $15 billion in damage and insurance for Texas because of the Category 4 storm.

Gray’s team predicts a 69 percent chance of at least one major hurricane breaking landfall on the U.S. coastline in 2010.

“While patterns may change before the start of the hurricane season, we believe current conditions warrant concern for an above-average season,” Gray said in a statement according to Reuters.

December’s forecast predicted 11 to 16 tropical storms, including six to eight hurricanes. It said three to five of the next year’s storms would become “major” hurricanes of Category 3 or higher on the Saffir Simpson intensity scale according to Reuters.

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