The News
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released this year’s Atlantic hurricane season forecast, predicting between 13 to 19 named storms between June and November.
Between six and ten storms could become hurricanes, and as many as five of those could be major hurricanes — Category 3 or higher. That would make for an above-average season, a trend driven by warming ocean temperatures because of climate change, NOAA said.
The forecast comes as NOAA and the National Weather Service are under pressure from staffing cuts amid US President Donald Trump’s push to reduce the government workforce: One NOAA scientist told The New York Times that it was “very hard” to judge if the agency’s forecasting had already been affected by the cuts.