CSU hurricane experts: Gustav just the start

By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 2, 2008 at 7:56 a.m.
Updated September 2, 2008 at 11:54 p.m.

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Gustav is likely just the beginning of a busy, whirling month of hurricanes, two prominent hurricane forecasters said Tuesday.

September is expected to experience five named storms, William Gray and Phil Klotzbach of the Colorado State University forecast team said Tuesday.

September should be almost twice as active as a typical September.

Two of the five storms likely will become major category 3, 4 or 5 hurricanes.

"We expect the month of September to be quite active," said Phil Klotzbach, lead author of the hurricane forecast. "We have seen some of the lowest pressure readings on record in the tropical Atlantic during August."

Water temperatures in the tropical Atlantic remain above average, Klotzbach said.

The combination of very low pressure and higher than average water temperatures ought to add up to a very active September, they say.

Gray, who has been issuing hurricane forecasts at CSU for a quarter century, said, "We predict that September will be quite active based on climate signals through August."

June and July this summer were very active with three named storms - Bertha, Cristobal and Dolly. Bertha was the longest-lived July storm on record.

August had above-average activity mostly because of Hurricane Gustav, which is dissipating over Louisiana and Arkansas.

• September 2, 2008

  9:47 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  climber4life writes:

  "which is still rocking Louisiana."

  Did a college student from CSU write this article?

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