FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Next year’s hurricane season is likely to be busier than average but not up to this year’s ruinous, record-setting pace, one of the nation’s top hurricane forecasters said Tuesday.
William Gray of Colorado State University predicted 17 named storms in 2006, almost double the long-term average, and said nine of them could become hurricanes – five of them major hurricanes, with winds of at least 111 mph.
Gray’s research team estimated there is an 81 percent chance that at least one major hurricane would strike the U.S. coast.
This year had a record 26 named storms, 14 of which were hurricanes and seven of which were intense hurricanes.
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