http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-02/colorado-state-increases-its-prediction-for-atlantic-hurricanes.htmlColorado State University researchers boosted their forecast for the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, calling for 18 named storms, 10 of them becoming hurricanes.
The researchers also said there is a 76 percent chance that a major hurricane, with winds of 111 mph (178 kph) or greater, will strike the U.S. The past-century average is 52 percent.
The forecast comes less than a week since the U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted an above-average season with 14 to 23 named storms forming before Nov. 30. The most active season on record was 2005, when 28 storms formed, including Hurricane Katrina, which caused New Orleans levees to fail, flooding the city and killing more than 1,800 people.
The CSU team predicts tropical cyclone activity in 2010 will be 195 percent of the average season. By comparison, 2009 activity was about 69 percent of the average season.
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