Residents in Montserrat Brace For Another Active Hurricane Season

Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration … NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center says there will be above-average hurricane activity this year.

This would make it the seventh consecutive above-average hurricane season.

NOAA’s outlook extends from June 1 to November 30 and predicts a 65% chance of an above-normal season, a 25% chance of a near-normal season and a 10% chance of a below-normal season.

For the 2022 hurricane season, NOAA is forecasting a likely range of 14 to 21 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), of which 6 to 10 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 3 to 6 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher).

NOAA provides these ranges with a 70% confidence.

The increased activity anticipated this hurricane season is attributed to several climate factors, including the ongoing La Niña that is likely to persist throughout the hurricane season, warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, weaker tropical Atlantic trade winds and an enhanced west African monsoon.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center will update the 2022 Atlantic seasonal outlook in early August, just prior to the historical peak of the season. 

Meantime, With the start of the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season less than a month away, a list of names for expected storms has been released.

According to the National Hurricane Center( NHC) since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center.

They are now maintained and updated through a strict procedure by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization.

In April 2022, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Hurricane Committees retired Ida from the rotating lists of Atlantic tropical cyclone names because of the death and destruction caused by the category 4 hurricane in the United States of America in 2021.

Making up the list of names is Alex,Bonnie, Colin, Danielle, Earl, Fiona, Gaston, Hermine, Ian, Julia, Karl, Lisa, Martin, Nicole, Owen, Paula, Richard, Shary, Tobias, Virginie and Walter.

The 2022 list will be used again in 2028.

The names are repeated every six years unless a storm is so deadly that its name is retired, as in the case of Ida.