A busy hurricane season is ominously on the horizon as America is already suffering through a prolonged economic and public health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The annual forecast, released Thursday by Colorado State University, is one of the earliest predictors of activity that will develop in the Atlantic during hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
This year’s data show that as many as 16 named storm systems will manifest in the Atlantic, including eight hurricanes, four of which could be as powerful as a Category 3 to 5.
All of the predictions are notably above historical normal averages.
There is a 69% or greater chance that at least one major hurricane will strike the U.S. coastline this year with winds from 111 mph to 129 mph, CBS News reported.
The team of researchers analyzes several factors to come up with the predictions, including past hurricanes, weather patterns and ocean temperatures, which this year are warm above normal across most of the tropical regions in the Atlantic, CBS reported.
Scientists say warm seas are the fuel that power strong storms.
"The tropical Atlantic is quite a bit warmer than it has been the past few years at this time," said Philip Klotzbach, one of the CSU researchers, according to CNN.
Climate scientists told CBS News they were most worried about the threat from simultaneous crises.
“There are only so many resources that we can marshal to mitigate these crises as they become increasingly more frequent and widespread,” Professor Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, told CBS News. “We’ll be forced into a very troubling triage environment where all we can hope for is to limit the damage, death and destruction.”
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