The hurricane season in the United States is approaching and like the last two years, 2022 is also expected to be more active than usual. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts that this year’s Atlantic hurricane season begins on June 1 and ends on November 30.
According to a press release from the NOAA, there is a 65% chance of this year being “above-normal”, 25% chance of normal and 10% of chance of being below-normal.
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The forecast also warned that 14 to 21 named storms are expected this year. Out of these, 6 to 10 could become hurricanes and 3 to 6 have the potential of becoming major storms. Such storms, often put in categories 3, 4 or 5 have wind speeds that are greater than 111 miles per hour.
The NOAA also announced the 14 named storms of this year, however, gave a disclaimer that it was making the above claims “with 70% confidence.”
This year’s named storms for the Atlantic hurricane season are:
Alex, Bonnie, Colin, Danielle, Earl, Fiona, Gaston, Hermine, Ian, Julia, Karl, Lisa, Martin, Nicole, Owen, Paula, Richard, Shary, Tobias, Virginie and Walter.
The Pacific, on the other hand, has already started getting a taste of this year’s hurricane season. Hurricane Agatha swept ashore on a stretch of tourist beaches and fishing towns Monday, then weakened moving inland over the mountains of southern Mexico.
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Agatha is the strongest hurricane on record that made landfall in May in the eastern Pacific, Associated Press reported citing Jeff Masters, a meteorologist with Yale Climate Connections and the founder of Weather Underground.
Agatha made landfall about 5 miles (10 kilometers) west of Puerto Angel as a strong Category 2 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour (165 kilometers per hour). But it quickly began losing strength as it moved inland.