Expect a Weak 2006 Hurricane Season

image originally uploaded by GISuser.com on flickr

According to Larry O'Hanlon at Discovery News, many weather experts agree that the 2006 hurricane season will be less severe than last year. Sensors and buoys have been tracking the effects of La Niña, the "unusually cool surface water in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean" that has basically disappeared since late last year. Although this won't guarantee that we won't see any hurricanes this year, it is seen as a good sign.
Over at the Tulane Hullabaloo, a storm expert by the name of Gary Gray "continues to project 17 named storms, including nine hurricanes, five intense. That would be considerably more active than the average season of 10 named storms, including six hurricanes, two intense. Yet it would be significantly slower than the 27 named storms, including 15 hurricanes that made 2005 the busiest and most destructive season on record."
Overall, this is pretty good news for travellers. But I guess this assumes that people can accurately predict the weather. Vaya con Dios, people!

Technorati Tags: weather, hurricane, 2006, storm, la nina, pacific ocean, discovery news, sensors, buoys