This year's Atlantic hurricane season will be far more active than usual with an expected 17 tropical storms, of which nine will strengthen into hurricanes, a forecasting team said today.
In an updated outlook for the season - which runs from June to November - the Colorado State University team raised the number of expected storms and hurricanes from the 14 and seven, respectively, that it had predicted in December.
The forecasters said the disappearance of the El Niño phenomenon, which tends to dampen Atlantic hurricane activity, and warm Atlantic sea surface temperatures lay behind their upgraded forecast.
