Canadian forecasters are predicting a near average or above average 2018 Atlantic hurricane season.
The season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, with September being the peak.
The Canadian Hurricane Centre told reporters in Dartmouth on Thursday that they expect 10 to 16 named storms, five to nine of which could reach hurricane status. Of those hurricanes, the centre is predicting one to four will be major hurricanes.
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“Hurricanes form to dissipate warm water in the Atlantic. So the warmer the water, the more hurricanes we tend to get,” said Bob Robichaud, a meteorologist with the Canadian Hurricane Centre.
“Right now, water temperatures in the tropical Atlantic are a little bit lower than average, but we expect as we move into the summertime that those waters will heat up and be about where they should be.”
There were six major hurricanes in 2017, four of which will have their names retired: Harvey, Irma, Nate and Maria.
“We kind of fared pretty good last year where we only had three storms that came into our response zone compared to the 17 that actually formed in the Atlantic,” Robichaud said.
Robichaud says those numbers represented an average hurricane season for this region, although the numbers were slightly higher than what they predicted.
Earlier in the day on Thursday, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said there’s a 75 per cent chance that the season will be near or above normal.
They’re also predicting five to nine hurricanes, including at least one that could be a Category 3 or higher. According to NOAA, an average hurricane season produces 12 named storms, of which six become hurricanes, including three major hurricanes.
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