Dr. William Gray has released his teams predictions for the 2007 Hurricane Season. The long and short of it is: 17 named storms, with 5 major storms. (A major storm is a hurricane with sustained winds in excess of 111 mph.)
Last year, from NOAA to AccuWeather, the hurricane pre-season forecast was a bust. The reason for this was the El Nino event in the Pacific Basin. That should not be a factor this year, hence Dr. Gray’s estimate that there is a 74% chance of a major hurricane making landfall on the U.S. coast.
For the Gulf Shores area, history shows us that our peak activity and risk for landfall has traditionally been in September.
As you know, the names are rotated, with particularly devasting storms having their name “retired”. For this season the names are:
Andrea
Barry
Chantal
Dean
Erin
Felix
Gabrielle
Humberto
Ingrid
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Noel
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy