Forecasters predict 9 Atlantic hurricanes this year

MIAMI (Reuters) – The 2007 Atlantic hurricane season will be far more active than usual with 17 tropical storms, of which nine will grow into hurricanes, a noted U.S. forecasting team founded by William Gray said on Tuesday.

If the prediction proves true, the June 1-November 30 hurricane season could mark a return to the destructive seasons of 2004, when four strong hurricanes hit Florida, and 2005, the year of Katrina, after a mild 2006 season when only 10 storms formed.


The 2004 and 2005 seasons rattled oil and insurance markets as hurricanes rampaged through the oil and gas fields of the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Katrina was the costliest storm in U.S. history with more than $80 billion in damage in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast.

The 2005 season was a record-breaker with 28 storms and 15 hurricanes.

Reuters