Debby is over, but hurricane season is still here for SC. How bad will this year be?

Scientists and meteorologists have updated their predictions for the remainder of hurricane season in southern coastal states.

And it doesn’t look particularly good.

In the wake of the first named storm to hit the Myrtle Beach area this week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association released an update to its previous forecast for this year’s hurricane season.

The new report, which was released on Thursday, now has predicted the number of expected named storms to between 17 and 24 before the season ends in November.

Out of that total number, it said between eight to 13 could become hurricanes, including four to seven major hurricanes.

“The hurricane season got off to an early and violent start with Hurricane Beryl, the earliest category-5 Atlantic hurricane on record,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in the report. “NOAA’s update to the hurricane seasonal outlook is an important reminder that the peak of hurricane season is right around the corner, when historically the most significant impacts from hurricanes and tropical storms tend to occur.”

Some of the reasons NOAA has predicted an above average hurricane season is due to several factors, including:

• Warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea
• Reduced vertical wind shear
• Weaker tropical Atlantic trade winds
• An enhanced west African monsoon

All of these conditions are also expected to continue into the fall, NOAA officials said.

NOAA also included the remaining names for this year’s forecast in its Aug. 8 report. They are: Ernesto, Francine, Gordon, Helene, Isaac, Joyce, Kirk, Leslie, Milton, Nadine, Oscar, Patty, Rafael, Sara, Tony, Valerie and William.

Those names are selected by the World Meteorological Organization at the beginning of each hurricane season.

Hurricane season in the Atlantic runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

Specific forecasts for each storm are available on the National Weather Service’s website.