Hurricane season just around the corner  Hurricane season
officially starts June 1 and it looks like a busy one in the
Atlantic.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) expects a well above-average hurricane season with 13 to
20 named storms. Seven to 11 of them could develop into
hurricanes and three to six of those could be major (defined as
category 3 or higher).  The average over about the past 30 years
is 12 named storms, six hurricanes, and three major hurricanes
per season.  NOAA also forecasts the “Accumulated Cyclone Energy
(ACE),” which is an estimate of the total amount of energy
Mother Nature will unleash through Atlantic tropical cyclones
this year. ACE is expected to be 120 to 205 percent of the
seasonal average, indicating a risk that hurricanes will not
only be more frequent this year, but stronger as well.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific, where NOAA predicts a below-normal
number of storms, the season's first hurricane, Hurricane
Barbara, made landfall in Mexico this week, the