With less than two months to go until the start of hurricane season, forecasters at Colorado State University unveiled their projections for 2017. There is slightly better news than expected for those along the East Coast.
Initial projections say there will be 11 named storms forming in Atlantic Ocean between June 1 and Nov. 30, with four of them becoming hurricanes and just two of those being classified as major.
Those numbers are down from the 12 named storms and 6.5 hurricanes each season, numbers that come from a 30-season average taken between 1981 and 2010.
Forecasters predict a 42 percent chance that at least one Category 3 or higher storm will hit the U.S. Coast – including a 24 percent chance of the east coast of Florida being struck.
In their report, officials say cooler waters in the Atlantic in recent months make conditions “less conducive” for hurricanes to form and intensify.
