2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook June 2005 - On May 16,
2005 the United States National Weather Service issued a
seasonal forecast for tropical storm activity for the Atlantic
Ocean for the 2005 season. Their forecast called for 12 to 15
named tropical storms to form this year, 7 to 9 of which will
become hurricanes. Of these hurricanes, 3 to 5 will reach the
status of intense hurricanes (Categories 3 to 5 on the Saffir-
Simpson scale). Other forecast centres such as Colorado State
University's Tropical Cyclone Lab and the Tropical Storm Risk
Initiative in the United Kingdom predict similar numbers of
tropical storm activity. If you compare these forecasts with the
long term (50 year) seasonal averages for tropical activity -
roughly 10 named storms, 6 hurricanes and 2 intense hurricanes -
you can see that we expect to have another busy season for
hurricanes in our part of the world. This forecast continues a
trend of above normal activity that has been occurring in the
Atlantic for the past decade. Sinc