Hurricane season will soon enter peak period

The peak period for hurricane season will get off to a quiet start this month, with below-average storm activity expected over the next two weeks, according to a forecast released Monday.

Colorado State University said conditions in the Atlantic won’t be favorable for tropical storms or hurricanes from Monday through Aug. 18, with various factors coming together to suppress their formation.

“We believe that the next two weeks will be characterized by activity at below normal levels,” states a forecast by the university’s Tropical Meteorology Project. “The National Hurricane Center does not foresee any tropical cyclone development over the next five days. None of the global models indicate significant tropical cyclone development in the next week.”

The report cited a high degree of vertical wind sheer, the high-level cross winds that tear up wouldbe tropical storms.

Although hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, the vast majority of storms form from midAugust to late October. The peak is Sept. 10. During the busy season for hurricanes, patches of stormy weather regularly roll off the African coast and drift across the Atlantic, some with the potential for becoming tropical storms or hurricanes.

Most forecasts so far have called for an average to below average season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted four to eight hurricanes in a forecast released at the beginning of the season. NOAA will release a peak-season forecast on Thursday.

AP Hurricane Michael struck the Florida Panhandle last year, becoming only the fourth storm on record to have hit the U.S. as a Category 5 hurricane.