Dinah Voyles Pulver, writing in the Daytona Beach News Journal reported that the team at Colorado State University issued an updated forecast Wednesday (4) for this summer’s hurricane season, calling for a below-average season.

That would be a big change from last season, which produced 19 storms. The team, which includes Phil Klotzbach and Bill Gray, calls for 10 named storms and four hurricanes this summer, including two major hurricanes with winds of 111 mph or greater.

This is the 29th year of forecasts from the university’s Tropical Meteorology Project.

The easing of the La Nina in the Pacific Ocean and possible transition to an El Nino event prompted the reduction in the expected number of storms, the team said. Generally, El Nino events prompt strong wind shear across the Atlantic which makes it harder for storms to form.

However, the team warned that it only takes one storm to make it a rough hurrricane season for folks in a storm’s path.

“Still, all vulnerable coastal residents should make the same hurricane preparations every year, regardless of how active or inactive the seasonal forecast is. It takes only one landfall event near you to make this an active season,” Klotzbach said.

Despite the below-average forecast, Gray said the region remains, as it has since 1995, “in a favourable multi-decadal period for enhanced Atlantic Basin hurricane activity, which is expected to continue for the next 10-15 years or so.”

For more information go to: http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2012/04/05/milder-hurricane-season-forecast-for-2012.html