Four hurricanes will become major storms of Category 3 to 5 in 2020, with sustained winds of at least 111 mph, according to projections for the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season that runs from June 1 to November 30.
Experts at Colorado State University are predicting 16 named storms, including eight hurricanes for 2020.
The chance that at least one major hurricane will make landfall in 2020 along the US coastline is 69 percent, compared with an average over the last century of 52 percent, said researchers Philip Klotzbach, Michael M. Bell and Jhordanne Jones. There is a 95 percent chance they said that at least one hurricane this year will make landfall in the US.
The forecasts do not predict where the storms might strike.
The researchers wrote in their report that "The tropical Atlantic is warmer than normal, while the subtropical Atlantic is quite warm, and the far North Atlantic is anomalously cool. The anomalously cold sea surface temperatures in the far North Atlantic lead us to believe that the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation is in its negative phase. While a cold far North Atlantic is typically associated with a cold tropical Atlantic, that has not occurred this winter."
The National Hurricane Center has posted it names of tropical storms or hurricanes that may form in the Atlantic Ocean in 2020 here. The names are alphabetical and alternate between male and female names.
Arthur
Bertha
Cristobal
Dolly
Edouard
Fay
Gonzalo
Hanna
Isaias
Josephine
Kyle
Laura
Marco
Nana
Omar
Paulette
Rene
Sally
Teddy
Vicky
Wilfred
Bertha
Cristobal
Dolly
Edouard
Fay
Gonzalo
Hanna
Isaias
Josephine
Kyle
Laura
Marco
Nana
Omar
Paulette
Rene
Sally
Teddy
Vicky
Wilfred