Even busier hurricane season forecast

The premier hurricane forecast team in the nation today issued an updated prediction for the season, and it calls for near record activity.

Colorado State now expects 25 named storms by the end of the current hurricane season.

"We have slightly increased our forecast and continue to call for an extremely active Atlantic hurricane season in 2024," forecasters posted. "Sea surface temperatures averaged across the hurricane Main Development Region of the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean remain near record warm levels. Extremely warm sea surface temperatures provide a much more conducive dynamic and thermodynamic environment for hurricane formation and intensification."

CSU expects 12 of the storms to become hurricanes, and six of those to become major hurricanes.

If the forecast bears out, this would be the third most active season ever. The most named storms ever were in 2020 when there were 30 of them. Laura and Delta hit southwest Louisiana that year. 2005 saw 28 named storms... including Katrina and Rita.