Active hurricane season expected, NOAA

North America

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) further strengthened the already widespread expectation that the 2008 hurricane season, which started last week and will peak between late August and mid-October, will be an active season. This will be in contrast to the previous two years which, despite predictions to the contrary, were pretty mild. The NOAA predicts 12 to 16 named storms, of these it expects six to nine to become hurricanes, of which two to five will be major hurricanes, Category 3 or higher, with winds above 110 miles per hour.